^ BIRD MISCELLANY 169 



ber of the dipper family in North America. There is one 

 species in South America, and another in Europe. He 

 loves the mountain stream, with its dashing rapids and 

 cascades. Indeed, he will erect his oven-like cottage 

 nowhere else, and it must be a fall and not a mere ripple 

 or rapid. Then from this point as a centre — or, rather, 

 the middle point of a wavering line — he forages up and 

 down the babbling, meandering brook, feeding chieflv, 

 if not wholly, on water insects. Strange to say, he never 

 leaves the streams, never makes excursions to the 

 country roundabout, never flies over a mountain ridge 

 or divide to reach another valley, but simply pursues 

 the winding streams with a fidelity that deserves praise 

 for its very singleness of purpose. No " landlubber " he. 

 It is said bv one writer that the dipper has never been 

 known to alight on a tree, preferring a rock or a piece 

 of driftwood beside the babbling stream ; yet he has the 

 digits and claws of the passeres, among which he is 

 placed systematically. He is indeed an anomalv, though 

 a very engaging one. Should he wish to go to another 

 canon, he will simply follow the devious stream he is on 

 to its junction with the stream of the other valley ; then 

 up the second defile. His flight is exceedingly swift. 

 His song is a loud, clear, cheerful strain, the very quin- 

 tessence of gladness as it mingles with the roar of the 

 cataracts. 



Farther up Ute Pass I found another nest, which was 



