MODE OF TAKING.--It is taken in nooses, to which berries are fixed, which, for this purpose, should always be kept in store till February; attracted by the bait it falls into the snare. It appears to be frightened at nothing, for it flies into nets and traps, though it sees its companions caught and hanging, and uttering cries of distress and fear. ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--Nothing but its beauty and scarcity can render the possession of it desirable; for it is a stupid, lazy bird. During the ten or twelve years that it can exist in confinement, and on very meagre food, it does nothing but eat and repose for digestion. If hunger induces it to move, its step is awkward, and its jumps so clumsy as to be disagreeable to the eye. Its song consists only of weak and uncertain whistling, a little resembling the thrush, but not so loud. While singing, it moves the crest up and down, but hardly moves the throat. If this warbling is somewhat unmusical, it has the merit of continuing throughout every season of the year. When the Bohemian chatterer is angry, which happens sometimes near the common feeding-trough, it knocks very violently with its beak. It is easily tamed, but is agreeable only by its beautiful colours, for it is very dirty. It is the greatest eater among birds that I know, being able to devour in a day a quantity of food equal to its own weight. It consequently passes hardly half digested, and, what is very disgusting, it is seen, like the ostrich, to eat again this excrement, if it is destitute of fresh food. I have observed it in this way swallow three times juniper berries which I had given it. In consequence of this voraciousness it must be cleaned very often to be kept sweet. THE DIPPER. [Illustration] Cinclus aquaticus, BECHSTEIN; Le Merle d'Eau, BUFFON; Der Wasserschwätzer, BECHSTEIN. This bird resembles the starling in size, but the head is more pointed, and the body, in general, larger, while the wings and tail are shorter, the tail being only one inch and a quarter long, and the ends of the wings cover a fourth part of it; the beak is three quarters of an inch long, narrow, flattish at the sides, raised in the middle, sharp and black; the narrow nostrils are almost entirely closed by a membrane; the iris is light brown; the shanks are an inch high, and of a dark brown, and have the four toes united together; the head and upper part of the neck are of a dusky rust brown; the rest of the upper part of the body is black, with an ashy gray tint; the quill-feathers and tail are blackish; the neck to half-way down the breast is pure white; the rest of the breast is deep maroon, which shades into the black of the belly. In the female the head and upper part of the neck are lighter, and the white of the breast is not so pure as in the male.