DIPPER 103 



The first winter plumage of the young bird is similar to that of the 

 adult, with perhaps a little more white on the underparts. 



Adults have a complete postnuptial molt in July and August ; I have 

 seen adults in fresh plumage as early as August 20. Kidgway (1904) 

 says that fall and winter adults have the "feathers of nearly all under 

 parts more or less distinctly (always narrowly) margined with whit- 

 ish, the larger wing-coverts and tertials (sometimes also secondaries, 

 innermost primaries, and rectrices) also narrowly margined at tips 

 with white, a narrow whitish mark on each eyelid, and the bill horn 

 brownish." 



Food. — The water ouzel obtains most of its food in, on, or under the 

 water of the streams on which it lives. It is very fond of the larvae 

 of the caddicefly, for which it probes around and under the small stones 

 on bottom ; there it also finds water-bugs, water-beetles, the larvae of 

 other insects, aquatic worms, and other forms of animal life that live 

 in such places. John Muir (1894) writes attractively: 



He seems to be especially fond of the larvae of mosquitoes, found in abundance 

 attached to the bottom of smooth rock channels where the current is shallow. 

 When feeding in such places he wades up-stream, and often while his head is 

 under water the swift current is deflected upward along the glossy curves of the 

 neck and shoulders, in the form of a clear, crystalline shell, which fairly incloses 

 him like a bell-glass, the shell being broken and re-formed as he lifts and dips his 

 head ; while ever and anon he sidles out to where the too powerful current carries 

 him off his feet ; then he dexterously rises on the wing and goes gleaning again 

 in shallower places. 



Mayflies, caddiceflies, and other insects often drop into the pools, or 

 the quiet reaches of the stream, or are washed down over the water- 

 falls ; under the waterfalls are favorite feeding places ; and, on the more 

 quiet surfaces, the ouzel swims like a duck, using its feet as paddles, 

 or flaps along the surface with the help of its wings, and picks up the 

 floating insects, if it can do so before the trout rise to snap them up. 

 Under the overhanging banks, under logs, or under the shelter of 

 rocks and stones, where trout fry or other small fish are hiding, it 

 seeks such finny prey. Often fish as much as 2 or 3 inches in length 

 are captured, taken ashore, and killed by vigorous beating; some of 

 these escape, and others, too big to swallow, are abandoned. 



In cold weather, or high up in the mountains, the dipper has been 

 seen to pick up frozen insects from the ice of lakes, or from snowbanks 

 after the manner of rosy finches. Junius Henderson (1927) makes 

 the surprising statement, on the authority of Prof. Aughey (1st Kep. 

 U. S. Ent. Comm., 1878), that dippers "have been observed catching 

 locusts" in Nebraska. J. A. Steiger (1940) .says that "at times they 

 make water cress and other aquatic flora part of their diet." 



Unfortunately for the dipper's welfare, it is too fond of the spawn 

 and small fry of salmon and trout, and it is tempted to feed on them 

 freely when and where they are easily available. This habit has made 



