APPENDIX 



pale buffy or brownish, the sides and breast streaked with dusky. Throat 

 and belly unstreaked. A pale buff line above the eye. Common in 

 winter in the valleys of California ; breeding in the far north. 



THE DIPPER FAMILY 



There is but one representative of this family in California, the 

 water-ouzel, a bird immortalized by John Muir in his "Mountains of 

 California." 



177. The American Dipper or Water-Ouzel; Cinclus mexicanus 

 Swains. 



Length about eight inches. Bill long and slender; tail very short. 

 General color slaty grayish, changing to brownish on the head. In 

 winter plumage mottled, with white edgings to the feathers. An in- 

 habitant of mountain streams in which it dives like a water bird. 



THE WREN AND THRASHER FAMILY 



This family includes many birds which were formerly classified 

 under different headings, such as the mocking-bird, the sage-thrasher, and 

 the various groups of wrens. They are all dull brown or gray birds, 

 generally fine vocalists, with long, slender bills, frequently curving. 

 They dwell, for the most part, in low shrubbery, where they find their 

 insect food. 



1 78. Sage-Thrasher ; Sage-Thrush ; Mountain Mocking-bird ; 

 Oroscoptes montanus (Towns.). 



Size a little smaller than a mocking-bird (about nine inches). Gen- 

 eral appearance like a thrush. Above plain brownish gray, below whitish 

 tinged on sides with buff and spotted with distinct dusky wedge-shaped 

 markings. Wings and tail edged with white, the former with two 

 white bars, the latter with two outer feathers tipped with white. A bird 

 of the desert and sage-brush region of the southwest. North, chiefly 

 on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 



1 79. Western Mocking-bird ; Mimus pol})glottos leucopterus 

 (Vigors). 



Length about ten inches. The young mocking-bird resembles very 

 closely the adult of the preceding species. Adult above grayish, in- 

 clining to brownish or ashy; below dirty white, unmarked; wings and 

 tail dark brown, with white spots and edgings on former and much 

 white on the latter (the outer pair entirely white). Common in Southern 

 California, apparently growing less abundant north of Los Angeles. 



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