I would make a chart of our life,
know why just this circle of creatures
completes the world.
Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852
The “Little Dipper"
Ordinary eyes might range
up and down the riverall day and
never detect its small black head
above the water.
A little dipper
dives while I look, and I do
not see it come up
October 17, 1855
.
"The bufflehead,
being known in different districts
by the names of
Spirit Duck, Butter-box, Marrionette, Dipper, and Die-dipper,
generally returns from the far north,
where it is said to breed,
about the beginning of September.”
“Little dipper” is Thoreau's name for various small diving birds, perhaps the buffle-head (Fuligula albeola), sometimes the pied billed or horned grebe (Podiceps auritus)
March 22. See a small black duck with glass, — a dipper (?).March 22, 1854
March 27. At length I detect two little dippers, as I have called them, though I am not sure that I have ever seen the male before. They are male and female close together, the common size of what I have called the little dipper. They are incessantly diving close to the button-bushes. The female is apparently uniformly black, or rather dark brown, but the male has a conspicuous crest, with, apparently, white on the hindhead, a white breast, and white line on the lower side of the neck; i. e., the head and breast are black and white conspicuously. Can this be the Fuligula albeola, and have I commonly seen only the female ? Or is it a grebe ? Rice says that the little dipper has a hen bill and is not lobe-footed. March 27, 1858
March 31.Humphrey Buttrick says that he has shot two kinds of little dippers, — the one black, the other with some white. March 31, 1859
April 19. It has a moderate-sized black head and neck, a white breast, and seems dark-brown above, with a white spot on the side of the head, not reaching to the out side, from base of mandibles, and another, perhaps, on the end of the wing, with some black there. . . . I think it is the smallest duck I ever saw. Floating buoyantly asleep on the middle of Walden Pond. Is it not a female of the buffle-headed or spirit duck? April 19, 1855
April 22. [Mann] obtained to-day the buffle-headed duck, diving in the river near the Nine-Acre Corner bridge. I identify it at sight as my bird seen on Walden. April 22, 1861
June 17 A large lobe-footed bird which I think must have been a large grebe, killed in Fitchburg. June 17, 1856
July 25. Approaching the shore [Moosehead Lake], we scared up some young dippers with the old bird. Like the shecorways [sheldrake], they ran over the water very fast. July 25, 1857
August 21. A small, wary dipper, — solitary, dark-colored, diving amid the pads. The same that lingered so late on the Assabet. August 21, 1854
August 28. In the soft mud, the tracks of the great bittern and the blue heron. Scared up one of the former and saw a small dipper on the river. August 28, 1854
September 5. See the little dippers back. September 5, 1860
September 8. I see the black head and neck of a little dipper in mid stream, a few rods before my boat. It disappears, and though I search carefully, I cannot detect it again. It is undoubtedly hidden mid the weeds — pads, flags, and pontederia, etc. — along the shore. September 8, 1859
September 9. Watched a little dipper some ten rods off with my glass, but I could see no white on the breast. It was all black and brownish, and head not enlarged. Who knows how many little dippers are sailing and sedulously diving now along the edge of the pickerel-weed and the button-bushes on our river, unsuspected by most? This hot September afternoon all may be quiet amid the weeds, but the dipper, and the bittern, and the yellow-legs, and the blue heron, and the rail are silently feeding there. At length the walker who sits meditating on a distant bank sees the little dipper sail out from amid the weeds and busily dive for its food along their edge. Yet ordinary eyes might range up and down the river all day and never detect its small black head above the water. September 9, 1858
September 27. Looking up, I see a little dipper in the middle of the river, evidently attracted by tame ducks, as to a place of security. I sit down and watch. The tame ducks have paddled four or five rods down-stream along the shore. The dipper approaches them by diving, and, in fear, they all rush to the shore and come out. The dipper shows itself close to the shore, and, when they enter the water again, joins them within two feet, still diving from time to time and threatening to come up in their midst. They return up-stream, more or less alarmed, pursued in this wise by the dipper, who does not know what to make of their fears. Soon the dipper is thus within twenty feet of where I sit, and I can watch it at my leisure.
It has a dark bill and considerable white on the sides of the head or neck, with black between it, no tufts, and no observable white on back or tail. When at last disturbed by me, it suddenly sinks all its body low in the water without diving. September 27, 1860
September 30. I see undoubtedly the little dipper by the edge of the pads this afternoon, and I think I have not seen it before this season. It is much smaller than I have seen this season, and is hard to detect even within four or five rods. It warily dives and comes up a rod or two further off amid the pads, scarcely disturbing the surface. September 30, 1858
October 17. I see behind (or rather in front of) me as I row home a little dipper appear in mid-river, as if I had passed right over him. It dives while I look, and I do not see it come up anywhere. October 17, 1855
October 29. [Melvin] has also a coot, which he calls a little black dipper! It has some clear white under its tail. Is this, then, the name of that dipper? and are the young dippers of Moosehead different? The latter were in flocks and had some white in front, I have said. October 29, 1857
November 5. Little dippers were seen yesterday. November 5, 1858
November 21. See from Clamshell apparently two little dippers, one up-stream, the other down, swimming and diving in the perfectly smooth river this still, overcast day. November 21, 1858
November 27. Mr. Wesson says . . . that the little dipper is not a coot, - but he appears not to know a coot, and did not recognize the lobed feet when I drew them. Says the little dipper has a bill like a hen, and will not dive at the flash so as to escape, as he has proved. November 27, 1857
December 14. At our old bathing-place on the Assabet, saw two ducks, which at length took to wing. They had large dark heads, dark wings, and clear white breasts. I think they were buffle-headed or spirit ducks. December 14, 1854
December 26. Walden still open. Saw in it a small diver, probably a grebe or dobchick, dipper, or what-not, with the markings, as far as I saw, of the crested grebe, but smaller. It had a black head, a white ring about its neck, a white breast, black back, and apparently no tail. It dove and swam a few rods under water, and, when on the surface, kept turning round and round warily and nodding its head the while. This being the only pond hereabouts that is open. December 26, 1853
December 26. Humphrey Buttrick tells me that he has shot little dippers. He also saw the bird which Melvin shot last summer (a coot), but he never saw one of them before. The little dipper must, therefore, be different from a coot. Is it not a grebe? December 26, 1857
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Little Dipper
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season, out-of-doors, in its own locality."
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2025
HORNED GREBE, or DOBCHICK
“Little dipper” is Thoreau's name for various small diving birds, perhaps the buffle-head (Fuligula albeola), sometimes the pied billed or horned grebe (Podiceps auritus).
https://tinyurl.com/hdt-dipper
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