60 THE AMERICAN DIPPER. 



I have thus referred to the English dipper to 

 introduce its very near relation, inhabiting the 

 far North-west. It, too, eschews all sociable com- 

 munion, disdaining the slightest approach to a 

 gregarious life except when mated, choosing in- 

 variably wild mountain-streams, where, amidst 

 the roar of cascades, whirling eddies, and swift 

 torrents, it passes its lonely life. 



The American dipper (Hydrobata Mexicana) 

 ranges from the coast to the summit of the Rocky 

 Mountains. I have killed it at an altitude of 

 seven thousand feet above the sea-level. In size 

 it very nearly resembles the European bird, but 

 differs greatly in colour; being of a uniform 

 plumbeous grey, the only markings a minute 

 spot above the anterior corner of the eye. 



I once found the nest of the American dipper 

 built amongst the roots of a large cedar-tree that 

 had floated down the stream and got jammed 

 against the niilldam of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany's old grist-mill, at Fort Colville, on a tribu- 

 tary to the Upper Columbia river. The water, 

 rushing over a jutting ledge of rocks, formed a 

 small cascade, that fell like a veil of water before 

 the dipper's nest; and it was most curious to see 

 the birds dash through the waterfall, rather than 

 go in at the sides, and in that way get behind it. 



