THE AMERICAN DIPPER OR WATER OUSEL. 



(Cmc/us mexicanus.) 



No one who visits the mountainous 

 region of western North America should 

 fail to visit some of the mountain streams 

 with their cascades and pools and there 

 study the antics of the American Dipper 

 or Water Ouzel. The song of this happy 

 bird — voiced even in winter — is well 

 worthy the effort made to hear it. The 

 Dipper loves only the mountains ; it is 

 not a bird of the level plains and it may 

 almost be said that it never visits these 

 lowlands, even in the severest weather. 

 Its country extends from the Youkon 

 Valley, on the north, to Guatemala, on 

 the south, and in the United States it 

 may be found from near the Pacific 

 ocean eastward to the base of the eastern 

 slope of the Rocky mountains. Mr. 

 Lord, in his "Birds of Oregon and Wash- 

 ington, " says : "We all ought to know 

 the thrice fascinating ways of this bird, 

 which belongs exclusively to our side of 

 the continent." 



Our own country is not the only one 

 that is favored with this interesting bird, 

 which belongs to a remarkable group that 

 has sorely puzzled the ornithologist. He 

 has been unable to place it in any family 

 of birds with other species. The Dippers 

 form a distinct family (Cinclidse), which 

 seems to have no very near allies. There 

 are perhaps ten or twelve species which 

 inhabit the mountainous regions of the 

 northern hemisphere. 



The name Dipper was first given to 

 this bird by the English ornithologist Be- 

 wick, and refers to its habit of standing 

 on some perch and tilting its body in such 

 a manner as to> give a nodding motion to 

 its head. Bewick himself says of the 

 Dipper : "It may be seen perched on the 

 top of a stone in the midst of the torrent, 

 in a continual dipping motion, or short 

 courtesy often repeated." Probably be- 

 cause of its habit of seeking food in the 



water, as the common crow does upon 

 the land, the Dipper is sometimes called 

 the Water-crow. 



The Dipper has been called a "dumpy" 

 bird, but it is surely the opposite of' what 

 that word ought to mean. It is a bird 

 of great energy and activity and in the 

 romantic places that it inhabits it seems 

 to delight in leading an observer to fol- 

 lowing it along the banks of some canyon 

 stream. Chirping, it will hop from stone 

 to stone as the observer follows. With a 

 jerking motion of the tail it will continue 

 leading until it reaches a pool, perhaps 

 formed at the base of a cascade at the 

 upper end of the chasm. Here it will 

 deliberately wade into the water and dis- 

 appear, to reappear some distance away, 

 and probably on the opposite side of the 

 pool. Mr. Lord says: "It is truly a 

 'queer' bird, and if one did not know its 

 habits and should some day see him 

 plunge into a swift mountain stream and 

 disappear, he might suppose he had wit- 

 nessed a case of desperate bird-suicide. 

 But did he know this odd creature's ways, 

 he would look for it to come up and land 

 on a rock at some point quite well below 

 its place of plunge." Not only does the 

 Dipper enter the water for the purpose 

 of gathering food from the bottom of 

 the stream or pool, but apparently also to 

 satisfy its love of water in the pool, "the 

 rushing current and the dashing cas- 

 cade." 



Its nest is also built where not only the 

 parents may enjoy the sound of the fall- 

 ing waters, but also where the young 

 may be trained and fed in the environ- 

 ment which they will occupy ever after- 

 wards. The food of the Dipper chiefly 

 consists of the mollusks and fresh water 

 insects, both in their larval and natural 

 states, that it finds as it makes its way 

 along the bottom by the combined action 



16? 



