BIRDS OF AMERICA 



DIPPERS 



Order Passcres ; suborder Oscina: : family Cinclidce 



HE distribution of the family of Dippers (Cinclidcc) is restricted to Europe and 

 temperate Asia, western North America, and thence southward through the 

 Andes Mountains to the southern part of South America. There are some 

 twelve or fourteen species, six of which are found in America, but only one 

 north of Mexico. 



In coloration, plain gray or brown predominates; and this is never relieved 

 by conspicuous markings, such as bars, though parts of the plumage some- 

 times have darker margins to the feathers which produces an appearance of 

 scales. Some species have the throat and breast, the crown, or part of the back, 

 white. The sexes are alike in color, but the young are paler below than the 

 adults. 



The bill is much shorter than the head, slender, much compressed, and the tip rather 

 abruptly curved downward. The wing is short, very concave beneath, with the tip com- 

 paratively long and stiff. The tail is decidedly more than half as long as the wing, and even, 

 or slightly rounded, and with the feathers broad and rounded at the tip. The head, neck, 

 and body are covered with down, and the plumage is very dense and soft. 



These birds are found only in mountainous or hilly districts, where they frequent the 

 swift, rocky streams in which they find their food of water insects and fish spawn. They are 

 at ease in the water, under which they propel themselves by motion of their wings. Their 

 nest, a structure of moss, is usually placed behind or near a waterfall, and is kept green 

 by the spray which constantly moistens it. 



The Dippers are song birds {Oscines). Apparently they are allied to both the Thrushes 

 and the Wrens, perhaps more nearly to the latter to whom they bear a closer resemblance 

 in their abbreviated form, though they differ in the more pointed wing as well as in other 

 details. In their aquatic habits and their covering of down they dififer from all other perching 

 birds, and for this reason they are often thought of as shore birds. 



DIPPER 

 Cinclus mexicanus unicolor Bniiapartc 



.\ (1, L'. Xumber 701 



Other Names. — Water Ouzel; .'American Water 

 Ouzel : .-\nierican Dipper. 



General Description. — Length, 8 inches. Slate-color. 



Color. — Head and neck, plain gray-brown, darker 

 on the crown, paler on chin and throat; rest of plumage 

 (except larger wing-coverts, wings, and tail-feathers), 

 plain dull slate color, the under parts, slightly paler 

 and more brownish, gradually merging forward into the 

 brown of foreneck ; greater wing-coverts, primary co- 

 verts, wings, and tail-feathers, dull blackish-slate or 

 dusky margined with slate color; greater under wing- 

 coverts, longer under tail-coverts, and (at least in more 

 early spring specimens) feathers of lower abdomen and 

 flanks, margined terminallj- with whitish ; bill, black ; 

 iris, brown ; legs and feet, horn-brownish. 



Nest and Eggs.^ Nest : In a crevice of rocks or 

 among roots of trees, always placed near running wa- 

 ter, often where spray keeps the outside damp, and 

 sometimes behind a cascade; a beautiful sphere of soft 

 green moss about seven inches in diameter, sometimes 

 dome-shaped, deeper than wide, with a small round 

 entrance and strongly arched and braced with leaves. 

 grass, and twigs, cemented with mud. Eggs : 3 to 5. 

 idain, pure white. 



Distribution. — Mountains of western North Amer- 

 ica, from Rocky Mountains (including Black Hills of 

 South Dakota) to the Pacific coast, and from the Mexi- 

 can boundary (western Texas to southern California), 

 and northern Lower California to northern Alaska. 

 ( Resident throughout, even in Alaskan localities.) 



There i.s only one member of this family in the The body of the Dipper is about as big as a 



United States and that one lives in the Rocky Robin's, but looks much smaller, because his very 

 Mountains and the mountains of California. short tail sjives him a " chunky '' look. His 



