THE PERCHING BIRDS. 53 



and as it grows brighter and brighter and darts its vivid beams into 

 the forest's deep recess, our little performer, as though animated with 

 fresh spirit, seems to strain his utmost powers in pouring forth a flood 

 of the most enchanting song. This exquisite aerial music is often 

 maintained during most of the night, or until the moon sets, two or 

 three birds sometimes vying with each other in the strength of their 



It is a matter of much annoyance to find that 

 nature has fitted the American Dipper to inhabit the 

 mountainous districts of Western North America 

 north to Alaska and south to Guatemala, and vouch- 

 safed no nook or corner of eastern land a few repre- 

 sentatives even of this strange and most interesting 

 bird. J. K. Lord, who had abundant opportunities 

 of observing this ouzel, or dipper, says, 



" It eschews all sociable communion, disdaining the slightest ap- 

 proach to a gregarious life except when mated, choosing invariably 

 wild mountain streams, where, amidst the roar of cascades, whirling 

 eddies, and swift torrents, it passes its lonely life. 



" I once found the nest of the American dipper built among the 

 roots of a large cedar-tree that had floated down the stream and got 

 jammed against the mill-dam of the Hudson's Bay Company's old 

 grist-mill, at Fort Colville, on a tributary to the upper Columbia 

 River. The water, rushing over a jutting ledge of rocks, formed a 

 small cascade that fell like a veil of water before the dipper's nest; 

 and it was most curious to see the birds dash through the water-fall 

 rather than go in at the sides, and in that way get behind it. For 

 hours I have sat and watched the busy pair passing in and out 

 through the fall with as much apparent ease as an equestrian per- 

 former jumps through a hoop covered with tissue-paper. The nest 

 was ingeniously constructed to prevent the spray from wetting the 

 interior, the mass being so worked over the entrance as to form an 

 admirable veranda." 



In the Eastern States we have nothing approaching 

 this bird in all its peculiarities, yet there are some 

 5* 



