90 BIRD LIFE IN A WESTERN VALLEY 



depredations of the dipper to turn their attention 

 to the March browns and the blue duns floating 

 past the " hovers." I sometimes fear that if it 

 were not for the dipper and other creatures as 

 eager as the trout in pursuit of the stone-fly 

 grubs, surface-fishing in these western streams 

 would disturb the equanimity of the most 

 philosophical angler that ever wielded a trout- 

 rod. The dipper is also of use to the fisherman 

 by destroying great numbers of the nymphs of 

 dragon-flies, which devour the spawn and even 

 the very young fry of the salmon and the trout. 



IV. THE DIPPER'S NEST 



Soon after my long watch beneath the pines at 

 the margin of the brook, I again visited the val- 

 ley, entering at the point where the dippers had 

 flown from sight around the bend on the out- 

 skirts of the wood. I had formed an opinion that 

 spring was sufficiently advanced for the dippers 

 to have nested, and that their nest would be 

 found up-stream beyond the spot where they had 

 vanished. If they had built, or even had done 

 no more than choose a site, down-stream, they 

 would, after the long intervals of feeding and play- 

 ing in the shallows, have departed in the direction 

 of the little cascades not far from the river. 



This opinion was proved to be correct. For 

 the first few hundred yards along the valley I 



