DIPPER 97 



mountain stream near a little waterfall at Unalaska, not much above 

 sea level; Lucien M. Turner (1886) says that it is not common in 

 these islands, but is a permanent resident. 



We found it at Ketchikan, Alaska, on the stream that dashes down 

 from the mountains just back of the town, and on the coast of British 

 Columbia, not far from salt water. In the Yellowstone Park, M. P. 

 Skinner observed it at levels ranging from 5,300 to well above the 

 8,000-foot level. Grinnell and Storer (1924) record it in the "Cana- 

 dian and Hudsonian zones at altitudes of from 2,000 to 10,000 feet, 

 and is continuously resident, even under the rigors of the Sierran 

 winter, up as high as water remains open," in the Yosemite region. 

 In Colorado, according to Sclater (1912), it ranges from 5,000 feet 

 up to timberline at 11,500 feet. And Mrs. Bailey (1928) records it in 

 New Mexico as low as 7,000 and as high as 11,600 feet. The American 

 dipper seems to reach its southern limits in Arizona ; we saw one in 

 Ramsey Canyon on April 13, 1922, and Swarth (1904b) saw one in 

 the same place in the Huachuca Mountains on August 4, 1902. We 

 explored the lower portion of Sabino Canyon, at the southern end 

 of the Catalina Mountains, but saw no dippers there. Charles T. 

 Vorhies (1921) , however, found a pair on two occasions in this canyon, 

 eight or ten miles up from the mouth of the rocky stream ; he thought 

 they were probably resident there. 



No better account of the American dipper has ever been written 

 than John Muir's (1894) chapter on the water ouzel; I cannot do 

 better than to quote freely from it, as it covers the gi'ound most beau- 

 tifully. Of its characteristic haunts, he writes : 



Among all the countless waterfalls I have met in the course of ten years' 

 exploration in the Sierra, whether among the icy peaks, or warm foot-hills, or 

 in the profund yosemitic canons of the middle region, not one was found without 

 its Ouzel. No caiion is too cold for this little bird, none too lonely, provided it 

 be rich in falling water. Find a fall, or cascade, or rushing rapid, anywhere 

 upon a clear stream, and there you will surely find its complementary Ouzel, 

 flitting about in the spray, diving in foaming eddies, whirling like a leaf among 

 beaten foam-bells ; ever vigorous and enthusiastic, yet self-contained, and neither 

 seeking nor shunning your company. * * * He is the mountain streams' 

 own darling, the humming-bird of blooming waters, loving rocky ripple-slopes and 

 sheets of foam as a bee loves flowers, as a lark loves sunshine and meadows. 



But the water ouzel, as I prefer to call it, is not wholly confined at 

 all times to the mountam streams and waterfalls. Several observers 

 have seen it on the shores of lakes, or feeding in them at considerable 

 depths. 



Taylor and Shaw (1927) observed several birds "on the quiet waters 

 of the Tahoma Creek beaver pond," on Mount Rainier; and "water 

 ouzels were frequently seen swinging low over the water near the shores 

 of Reflection and Mowich Lakes, apparently as much at home as in the 

 cascading creeks below." 



