POAETQUISSINGS IN WINTER. 31 



dress seeks for lost treasure round the hull of a sunken 

 ship." The late John Keast Lord, from whose charm- 

 ing "Naturalist in British Columbia" I have quoted 

 the above, further says of this bird, " 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. . . . The water, rush- 

 ing over a jutting ledge of rocks, formed a small cas- 

 cade, that fell like a veil of water before the dipper's nest, 

 and it was most curious to see the birds dash through 

 the waterfall rather than go in at the sides, and in that 

 way get behind it." 



In the case of our winter- wren, which is by no means 

 an aquatic bird, we have an instance of the same thing, 

 so far as water proving no obstacle before the entrance 

 of a place guarded and, indeed, concealed by it. 



The uniform temperature of spring water and of the 

 atmosphere immediately in contact therewith is sure to 

 keep green the rank growth of hardy grasses that mark 

 the spot, and in this there are many forms of active life 

 to be found, even in the depths of winter. The day of 

 my adventure with the winter-wren was marked, also, 

 by another interesting phase of bird-life. Scarcely a 

 rod from the spring proper, in such green grass as I 

 have mentioned, I found a yellow rail, which, by its vig- 

 orous flight and readiness to start on being disturbed, 

 was evidently not a wounded bird, that had been unable 

 to join in the usual autumnal migration of these and the 

 other species of rail-birds that, from May to October, 

 are so abundant in our meadows. 



