The Dippers are aquatic in their habits, and they are admirably fitted for obtaining their food in the water. The plumage is everywhere very dense and even the eyelids are clothed with feathers ; the head is narrowed in front, and the feathers of the forehead are
very short and lie flat.
The Dippers frequent mountain-streams, and the Indian species do not migrate. They build large domed nests of moss amongst rocks or between the roots of trees near the water, and they lay numerous white eggs.
Genus CINCLUS, Bechst., 1802.
The characters of the genus are the same as those of the sub-family.
Key to the Species.
a. Throat and breast white , C. kashmiriensis, p. 162. b. Throat and breast brown, uniform with re- mainder of lower plumage. a'. Plumage light-coloured C. asiaticus, p. 163. b'. Plumage dark-coloured C. pallasi, p. 164. c. Throat and breast brown, but conspicuously paler than remainder of lower plumage . . C. sordidus, p. 165.
708. Cinclus kashmiriensis. The White-breasted Asiatic Dipper.
Cinclus cashmeriensis, Gould, P. Z. S. 1859, p. 494 ; Salvin, Ibis, 1867, p. 117; Blaf. J. A. S. B. xli, pt. ii, p. 48; Hume, Cat. no. 348 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. vi, p. 312 ; Scully, Ibis, 1881, p. 438.
Hydrobata cashmiriensis (Gould), Jerd. B. I. i, p. 507 ; Blyth, Ibis, 1866, p. 374 ; Stoliczka, J. A. S. B. xxxvii, pt. ii, p. 33 ; Hume $ Holders. Lah. to Yark. p. 189.
The White-breasted Cashmere Dipper, Jerd.
Coloration. Forehead, crown, nape, lores, sides of the head and neck, and the whole mantle chocolate-brown ; remainder of the upper plumage slate-colour, each feather distinctly margined with black ; the mantle and back blending gradually together, the brown of the former suffusing the upper part of the latter ; wings dark brown, the outer webs edged with slate-colour, and the secondaries and tertiaries tipped with white ; wing-coverts dark brown, broadly edged with slaty ; tail slaty, the shafts dark; cheeks, chin, throat, and breast pure white ; remainder of the lower plumage chocolate-brown, gradually turning to dark brown or blackish towards the tail.
The young have the whole upper plumage slate-colour with black margins; the wing-coverts tipped white ; the quills more broadly tipped with white than in the adult ; the whole lower plumage white with numerous irregular - cross-lines of brown. After the autumn moult the young resemble the adult, but the abdomen is dark brown without any tinge of chocolate immediately next the white of the breast, as is the case in the adult, and each feather
