2 Bird -Lore 



through the air with the agility of a Flycatcher, leaving the water as neat and 

 dry as a Duck, instead of bedraggled as a well-behaved perching bird should 

 be under similar circumstances!" Well, that is just what he can do. To be 

 convinced, come and see. Come winter or summer, for they are with us the 

 year round. Driven from the higher altitudes in the ^winter by the freezing 

 of the streams, for they must have open water, they seldom come out to the open 

 plains, though I have heard their songs and seen them scurrying along the 

 creek in Boulder, just at the edge of the plains, in mid-winter. In the spring 

 some follow the melting of the ice almost to the tops of the mountains, wherever 

 there are dashing brooks and open lakes of clear, cold water. No* water is too 

 cold, provided it is clear and not laden with glacial 'flour' or polluted with mud 

 or mill tailings. No snowstorm can stop their merry whistling in the late winter 

 and early spring. 



They nest from 5,000 to 11,000 feet or more above sea-level in Colorado, 

 almost always within reach of the flying spray from swift brooks. The collec- 

 tions and notes of Mr. Gale indicate that in this locality their nesting dates 

 vary from the first of May to the middle of June, the variation doubtless in part 

 but not altogether due to differences in altitude. With nests made so snug and 

 dry inside, why constantly sprayed moss on the outside should be essential 

 to their happiness or welfare has not, so far as we are aware, been satisfactorily 

 explained, but that it is a fact seems hardly to admit of a doubt. Mr. Stevenson, 

 of the Hayden Survey of the western territories, reported that in one case where 

 the nest was built beyond reach of spray the birds daily sprinkled it by flying 

 swiftly from the water to the nest and shaking off the few drops remaining 

 on their plumage. ■ 



These birds seem to have no gregarious instincts. I have never seen more 

 than three or four together and seldom more than two, and when more than 

 a pair are seen it is usually a young brood soon after leaving the nest. Water 

 beetles and the larvae of caddisflies, dragonflies and other aquatic insects con- 

 stitute a large part of their food, with fish spawn perhaps as a minor item in 

 the bill-of-fare. The food is gleaned from the beds of the streams. Their dex- 

 terity in the swiftest currents is almost unbelievable. The fisherman who has 

 been almost swept from his feet by the torrent in which the bird makes its way 

 with the utmost ease and speed, is filled with admiration. Though emphati- 

 cally aquatic, they are not web-footed and do not usually make their way upon 

 the surface of the water after the manner of Ducks, but both walk and fly be- 

 neath the water, sometimes diving to great depths. In aerial flight they are 

 rapid, and closely follow the meanders of the streams, seldom taking short 

 cuts even when the bends are rather sharp. Their nests are not only interest- 

 ing examples of bird architecture, but even more interesting in the method 

 of their construction. 



Many accounts have been written concerning the habits of these birds by 

 observant naturalists, but all has not yet been told. Mr. Denis Gale studied 



