THE NIDIOLOGIST 



109 



startled it flies a short distance, drops into the 

 marsh, and moves gradually back to near its 

 nest again, without its presence being suspected. 



I have never heard its cry, but it is said to be 

 like gua rather hoarsely uttered. 



B. Hall Swales. 



Detroit, Mich. 



Nesting of the Water Ouzel. 



MY experience in discovering the nests of 

 this bird is limited to two instances. 

 The first nest was found on the top 

 of a large rock, in a sort of hole or opening in 

 a side of a small ravine, through which flowed 

 a rather quiet little stream, a branch of Soquel 

 Creek, in Santa Cruz County, Cal. 



The nest. was about fifteen feet from the 

 stream, an out-of-the-way place for this bird to 

 build, as it prefers a shelf of a rock right over 

 the wildest part of the stream, the swifter the 

 current and the more eddies and waterfalls the 

 better. 



I concluded that the reason this pair of birds 

 chose this remote spot was that the shape of 

 the part of the rock upon which they built was 

 particularly suitable for a nesting place. The 

 nest was newly built and ready to receive the 

 first egg, wherefore I refrained from appropriat- 

 ing the little domicile that would have made 

 an interesting addition to my collection. It 

 was the middle of June, 1884, and evidently 

 the second nest the pair had built that season. 



I discovered my second nest in the latter 

 part of May, 1886, quite by accident, in the 

 same manner as the first, while in quest of 

 trout. I had been fishing all the afternoon along 

 the Arroyo Honda, near Mount Hamilton, in 

 Santa Clara County. Late in the afternoon I 

 found myself on the wildest part of the stream 

 — in fact, the whole stream is beautifully wild 

 and grand — when I came to the " end of my 

 rope." The precipitous walls of the canyon 

 through which the stream flows shut off all 

 detour at this point, so I had to skip from rock 

 to rock until I reached the middle of the creek 

 bed. Here the rocks assumed bolder propor- 

 tions, some of them as large as a small house, 

 but strung out kindly enough to afford the 

 angler a path down the stream. In some places 

 they were so close together that the volume of 

 water rushing between them seemed to have 

 impetus sufficient to' whirl them from their 

 foundations, or formed itself into pools and 

 graceful waterfalls. 



It was while clambering over this rocky path 

 just above the surging waters that I was at- 

 tracted by a pair of these slate-colored, stump- 

 tailed birds. They hopped along in front of 

 me over the big rocks or flitted from place to 



place with a short, jerky flight similar to that 

 of a Wren. Their notes, if any were uttered, 

 were lost in the uproar of the water, but they 

 moved their stumpy tails up and down at a 

 great rate, and again would give a graceful dip 

 like a French dancing master. From this dip- 

 ping or tilting movement they are also known 

 by the name of American Dipper. 



Here I found the nest, situated on a shelf of 

 a high rock and about two feet and a half 

 above the roaring water. My hopes of obtain- 

 ing a rare prize in the shape of a valuable set 

 of eggs were rudely shattered when I found the 

 nest contained only a dead fledgeling. But the 

 find was not a total loss, as I took the nest into 

 camp. It was composed chiefly of material 

 collected from near the water, such as green 

 moss and partly decayed leaves and grasses, and 

 lined inside with fine moss and small feathers 

 of wild birds. On the whole it was very artisti- 

 cally and compactly built. The bottom was 

 flat, taking its shape from the surface upon 

 which it rested. The back of the nest was also 

 flat, from its contact with the smooth and per- 

 pendicular wall of the rock. The bottom and 

 the back were connected by the cover of the 

 nest, which was rounded or arched from one to 

 the other with a gradual slope. Here twigs and 

 stouter materials were used to give and retain 

 this shape. The opening by which the birds 

 entered seemed rather small in comparison to 

 their size, and was in the middle of the cover. 



The nest was as much the shape of a fish 

 basket as could be imagined, taking for com- 

 parison the flattened bottom and back and the 

 sloping cover with the slot in the middle, cor- 

 responding to the slot in the fish basket. Only 

 the two narrow sides that appear on the fish 

 basket were lacking on the nest, as the latter 

 had but the three surfaces already described. 



Not having been overburdened with a heavy 

 catch of trout, my basket was correspondingly 

 empty; so I transferred its contents into my 

 pockets and placed the nest into the basket, 

 wherein it fitted as snugly and shapely as a 

 small dish in one the next size larger, thereby 

 affording a handy and safe means of transporta- 

 tion from camp to the cabinet. The eggs are 

 said to be three in number, dull-white, unspotted, 

 and measuring in inches 1.04x0.70. 



During my fishing and camping trips in the 

 coast counties in the breeding season I have 

 invariably met one to four pairs of these birds 

 along each mountain stream. I never made a 

 trip expressly to find their nests, but do not 

 doubt that I could find a nest or two along any 

 mountain stream. They are not shy birds, but 

 will allow anyone to approach quite close, and 

 they continue hopping or flying along the stream 

 in front of the person following them, or will 



