80 IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



examined the rocks across the water, probably 

 eight feet from me. Then arose again that 

 strange cry, and at the same instant my eye fell 

 upon a tiny ledge, level with the water, and per- 

 haps six inches long, on which stood a small 

 fellow-creature in great excitement. He was 

 engaged in what I should call " curtsying " ; 

 that is, bending his leg joint, and dropping his 

 plump little body for a second, then bobbing up 

 to his fullest height, repeating the performance 

 constantly, looking eagerly out over the water 

 the while, evidently expecting somebody. This 

 was undoubtedly the bird's manner of begging 

 for food, a very pretty and well-bred way, too, 

 vastly superior to the impetuous calls and de- 

 mands of some young birds. The movement 

 was " dipping," of course, and he was the dip- 

 per, or ouzel baby, that had been cradled in that 

 fountain-dashed nest by the fall. He was not 

 long out of it, either ; for though fully dressed 

 in his modest slate-color, with white feet, and 

 white edgings to many of his feathers, he had 

 hardly a vestige of a tail. He was a winsome 

 baby, for all that. 



While I studied the points of the stranger, 

 breathless lest he should disappear before my 

 eyes, he suddenly burst out with the strange call 

 I had heard. It was clearly a cry of joy, of wel- 

 come, for out of the water, up on to the ledge be- 



