WESTERN BIRDS dipper or Ouzel 



flowering trees and shrubs, which latter harbor countless 

 singing birds. The stream adds not a little to the at- 

 tractiveness, being a typical mountain one with clear, 

 rapid water forming cascades over a stony bottom. 



Our cabin was right beside this stream, and from its 

 porch I watched the antics of the Water Ouzels as they 

 foraged for their young. Early in the afternoon of May 

 15th, as I sat expectant, an Ouzel appeared at the farther 

 edge of the stream (perhaps twenty-five feet away) 

 where the water was protected by a boulder and com- 

 paratively quiet. It was to me most thrilling to see 

 this little gray bird deliberately dive into this deep bit 

 of water, entirely disappear and remain for several sec- 

 onds before it came into sight again. This it did by 

 flying straight up out of the water where there was con- 

 siderable current, and about two feet from where it went 

 in. Then lighting on a rock in the midst of the cascades, 

 it looked about before jumping to another rock and walk- 

 ing about in the shallower part of the stream. As it 

 came up black objects were visible in its bill. Again 

 the bird pitched off, head first, into the bubbling cas- 

 cades, this time sort of floundering about underneath in a 

 place shallow enough so that I could catch glimpses of 

 it. It looked as if it were using its wings in its upward 

 progress against the stream. 



After that this, or another bird, was seen in the water 

 near the cabin, or flying like a winged-bullet up stream. 

 Only once did I see a bird fly down stream, and then 

 only for a short way before it lighted to forage. 



About four o'clock I went up to the bridge where the 

 birds had been seen preening on a rock to try and locate 

 the nest. 



Just above the bridge was quite a fall of water and 

 half the stream-bed was filled by a big rock, beneath 

 which I felt would be an ideal place for a nest, for it 

 was damp and showered by the spray. But none was in 



291 



