WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 265 
richness until the flood season of the early summer. 
Then the torrents chant their noblest anthems, and then 
is the flood-tide of our songster’s melody. As for weather, 
dark days and sun days are alike to him. No need of 
spring sunshine to thaw Azs song, for it never freezes. 
Never shall you hear anything wintry from fis warm 
breast, no pinched cheeping, no wavering notes between 
_ sorrow and joy; his mellow fluty voice is ever tuned to 
downright gladness, as free from dejection as cock- 
crowing. . . - The more striking strains are perfect ara- 
besques of melody, composed of a few full, round, mellow 
notes, embroidered with delicate trills which fade and 
melt in long slender cadences. In a general way his 
music is that of the streams refined and _ spiritualized. 
The deep booming notes of the falls are in it, the trills 
of rapids, the gurgling of margin eddies, the low whis- 
pering of level reaches and the sweet tinkle of separate 
drops oozing from the ends of mosses and falling into 
tranquil pools.” ! 
After this exquisite description gleaned from Mr. Muir’s 
essay on the Water Ouzel, one scarcely dares attempt 
anything original on the subject. And yet the thrill of 
discovering my first Ouzel’s nest will never be forgotten. 
Often had I watched the bird fly through the waterfalls, 
dart into the swirling rapids, or courtesy daintily on a rock 
that rose in the middle of a white torrent ; often heard 
his clear song rising above the wild tumult of the water ; 
often seen the ball of moss on a slender shelf of rock 
wet by the spray, and been told that it was the nest 
1 John Muir, in ‘‘ The Mountains of California.” 
