WESTERN BIRDS Dipper or Ouzel 



to get its living from the streams where it lives. Its 

 manner of obtaining this insect life is not by skimming 

 over the water, or gathering it from the edge of the 

 stream, but with utter abandon this bird midget plunges 

 into the swiftest current and walks on the bottom of the 

 stream, oftentimes going against the force of the water, 

 at that. This feat seems almost too marvelous to be 

 true, but when Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller, in her "A Bird- 

 Lover in the West," tells of the Ouzels' wonderful ability 

 of walking through the swiftest eddies, we must believe. 

 John Muir, in "Mountains of California," also tells of 

 this bird. 



Its manner of bending the leg and bobbing up and 

 down has given the name Dipper. 



The nest of these queer birds is a bulky ball with an 

 opening at one side. It is made of green moss and placed 

 on a ledge, among the rocks, in an upturned root, always 

 near water, and usually under a cascade where the spray 

 can reach the nest and keep the moss green. 



In the bird's way of poking about in crannies, rocks, 

 and dark places it has been likened to a Wren. And, 

 too, its loud, clear, vivacious song somewhat resembles 

 that family. Mrs. Miller speaks of the song as being 

 exquisite and quite in harmony with the melody of the 

 stream. Dawson, in his '^irds of Washington," gives 

 an interesting account of the actions of the Ouzel and 

 gives jigic, jigic, jigic as "certain gruff notes of greet- 

 ing" given by the bird as it viewed him from its station 

 on a jutting rock. 



While the Ouzels are resident in the greater part of 

 their range, when the streams become frozen they go 

 farther down the canyons, and according to Mr. Batch- 

 elder sometimes swim down stream under the ice. Mar- 

 velous birds they, indeed, are. In southern California 

 they are reported by a reliable authority as singing at 

 Christmas time. 



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