164 



THE NIDIOLOGISt. 



and great masses of sandstone from time to 

 time fall down on account of the wearing 

 action below, so that now quite a cliff rises 

 above the water. As I approached the 

 stream I could see that a greal square piece 

 of rock lay in the bed partiallj- damming 

 it up and throwing the body of the water 

 lietween it and the cliff. On a shelf on the 

 inner side of this rock an Ouzel had begun 

 its nest. The nest was about one foot above 

 the water and could not be seen from the 

 road on account of the rock. The birds 

 had been at work about three days when I 

 first saw it and as I stood looking the female 

 appeared with new material in her beak. 



On April 15 I again visited the place 

 and found the nest complete. As I ap- 

 proached the spot I heard the male singing 

 nearby. At first I could not locate him, 

 but presently I found him sitting on a piece 

 of driftwoort that jutted out of the water 

 under a shelving rock. It was a lovely 

 little bower; the ferns and moss that bung 

 around the edge of the shelf made a delicate 

 green veil which formed a little room there, 

 and the happy bird sat warbling content- 

 edly to himself, his silvery song mingling 

 l>eautifully with the music of the stream. 

 I found his mate on her pretty nest. The 

 nest was almost spherical in shape, and 

 about eight inches in diameter, with an 

 elliptical hole in the side for an entrance. 

 It was made mainly of soft, fibrous materials 

 taken from the piles of drift rubbish nearby, 

 such as decayed leaves and bark. At first 

 I thought mud had been used as a plaster, 

 but on closer examination I found that the 

 materials were merely very dirty and cov- 

 ered with vegetable mould. The lining 

 was fine grass, some of the straws sticking 

 out at the entrance hole. The nest cavity 

 was about four inches in diameter, leaving 

 the walls of the nest about two inches thick. 

 As I sat making a rough .sketch of it the 

 female, who had been .scared off at first, 

 now came around and appeared to be in 

 great distress. She would stand with her 

 feet in the water dipping uj) and down in- 



cessantly and occasionally ducking her head 

 into the water to throw a spray over her 

 back. I was not over three feet away from 

 her, still she showed no great fear except 

 once when I made a quick movement, at 

 which .she flew headlong into the water and 

 got further away. I must say that I felt 

 some regret when I took the four pearly 

 eggs out of the cozy nest, but I fear my 

 .sorrow was overcome by exultation. 



One of my most interesting trips was up 

 Rear creek, a stream that cuts through the 

 hills west of Golden. On April 8th I 

 started, in company with a friend, up this 

 creek. At a previous time we had located 

 several nesting sites and were now going to 

 look after the eggs. As we were proceed- 

 ing up the stream I heard some bird sing- 

 ing. We stopped to listen and to try to 

 discover the songster. It was one of the 

 sweetest bird songs I had ever heard. 

 Liquid, vivacious, clear as the tinkling of a 

 bell the notes came to us as from the very 

 water. The song was like a tame Canary's 

 warble, interspersed with endless variations, 

 but much softer and sweeter. After looking 

 tor some time we discovered the musician 

 not over ten feet from us sitting on the 

 shady side of a rock which stood in the 

 center of the stream. His little eyes flashed 

 like dewdrops in the sunlight as he sat 

 winking and turning his head from side to 

 side. 



Suddenly he flew away with a volley 

 of excited notes and went up the stream. 

 We soon came to the nest we were looking 

 for. It was ten feet above the water on a 

 shelf of the opposite rocky bank. Borrow- 

 ing a long plank from a bridge nearby we 

 leaned it up against the rocks and on climb- 

 ing uj) I got a nice set of five eggs which 

 were slightly incubated. This nest was 

 constructed very much like the last de- 

 scribed but varied somewhat in shape. The 

 ])irds which flew away on our near a])proach 

 did not appear again while we were there. 



Several other nests were examined and 

 althouo;h some of them were finished no 



