A BIRD MISCELLANY l63 



saw the water-ousel. I had been inspecting Rainbow 

 Falls, and was duly impressed with its attractiveness. 

 Thinking I had lingered long enough, I turned away 

 and clambered up the rocky wall below the falls towards 

 the road above. As I did so, a loud, bell-like song rang 

 above the roar of the water. On looking down into the 

 ravine, I saw a mouse-colored bird, a little smaller than 

 the robin, his tail perked up almost vertically, scuttling 

 about on the rocks below and dipping his body in an 

 expressive way like the " tip-up ''' sandpiper. Having 

 read about this bird, I at once recognized it as the 

 water-ousel. My interest in everything else vanished. 

 This was one of the birds I had made my pilgrimage to 

 the Rockies to study. It required only a few minutes 

 to scramble down into the ravine again. 



Breathlessly I watched the little bird. Its queer 

 teetering is like that of some of the wrens, accentors, 

 and water-thrushes. Now it ran to the top of a rock 

 and stood dipping and eying me narrowly, flirting its 

 bobby tail ; now it flew to one of the steep, almost ver- 

 tical walls of rock and scrambled up to a protuberance ; 

 then down again to the water ; then, to my intense 

 delight, it plunged into the limpid stream, and came up 

 the next moment with a slug or water-beetle in its bill. 

 Presently it flew over to the opposite wall, its feet slip- 

 ping on the wet rocks, and darted into a small crevice 

 just below the foot of the falls, gave a quick poke with 



