The American Dipper in Colorado 3 



the species for many years in the mountains of Colorado and left in his note- 

 books several unpublished accounts which should not remain buried in manu- 

 script. I have woven these accounts into one, in order to eliminate repetition, 

 and present the facts in an orderly and logical way without changing the phrase- 

 ology or doing violence to the meaning by wresting sentences from their proper 

 connection, with the following result: 



FROM THE MANUSCRIPT OF DENIS GALE 



"Sites for nest — upon a rocky ledge over deep and lively water, behind a 

 waterfall, under a bridge supported by crossbeams. Sometimes a rock in mid- 

 stream is selected for a site. A pair of these birds have their nest behind Boulder 

 Falls, in a kind of a 'Cave of the Winds,' having to fly in and out through a very 

 wetting, dense spray. The same locality is chosen for nesting year after year 

 unless some physical change renders it unfit. 



"However sly and shy this bird may be, if looking for its nest or in its neigh- 

 borhood, when the bird is satisfied that you have discovered it, all shyness and 

 slyness ends, for then a more confiding, fearless little fellow is not to be met 

 with, going in and out of the nest when you have your hands upon it and with 

 plaintive appeal both in speech (almost) and actions seeks to gain your sympathy 

 and implores your forbearance. Robbed of her treasures, with the joint labor 

 of her mate another nest is made, generally on the same site, and in three 

 weeks she sits covering a second clutch of eggs, and that taken, a third will 

 engage her cares. This fruitful industry no doubt is often exercised independ- 

 ent of the interference of man, from the fact of the sudden rise of streams, when 

 from their situations many nests must be swept away. I do not believe she 

 raises two broods in one season. While most exercised and while watching 

 as it is searching for food in the creek bed, it courtesies continually, and at each 

 courtesy gives a little sharp twit, keeping time to every fourth or fifth twit by 

 a sudden working of the eyelid, causing the eye to sparkle brilliantly with the 

 light. The nest is seldom betrayed by the bird itself, unless when the young 

 are hatched. Then the journeys to and from the nest, with food, are easily noted. 

 Previous to having hatched the young, the bird will drop from the opening in 

 the nest like a stone into the fierce, rushing waters, and under the surface, allow- 

 ing itself to be carried quite a distance before taking flight, its exit unperceived 

 even when looking at the spot. Its aquatic feats are remarkable, going into and 

 against the strongest current with perfect ease, and, like a fish, seeming not to 

 touch the water, coming out of it perfectly dry, without a shake or flutter, to 

 swim, sink or dive and even walk or run under water in search of the food it 

 loves to hunt for. In all clear and unpolluted streams running from the melt- 

 ing snowbanks near the mountain peaks it is equally proficient, nor in flight 

 is it wanting in grace or power, darting down a stream with the rapidity of a 

 flash and again flying from the water up to and about its nest-site, when in 

 danger, with the ease and grace of a Hummingbird and noiselessly as an Owl. 



