10 



CINCLIDiE, DIPPERS. 



"The Brown Thrush is an abundant species in Eastern and Middle 

 Kansas, and is also of frequent occurrence in the foot-hills at the east- 

 ern base of the Eocky Mountains, in Colorado, up to about 7,500 feet. 

 We found its nests, containing full sets of eggs, at Leavenworth during 

 the first week of May. Here the nests were built in low bushes, the 

 soil being clayey and damp ; but at Topeka, toward the end of May, we 

 found nests on the ground, the soil being dry and sandy. At Fort Hays 

 its nests were usually placed in trees, sixteen to twenty feet from the 

 ground, to avoid the contingency of floods. The trees here grew prin- 

 cipally along the bed of Big Creek ; and the stream being subject in 

 summer to sudden freshets, the scattered undergrowth, as well as the 

 lower branches of the trees, are thus often submerged, so that any nests 

 built on or near the ground would be liable to be destroyed by the rise 

 of the stream. The driftal d6hris adhering to the trees serves to mark 

 the 'high-water' line, and we rarely found a bird's nest below this limit. 

 These birds, that usually breed near the ground, in bushes or on the 

 lower brauclaea of trees, thus modified their habits to suit the exigencies 

 of the locality." 



The Thrasher's nest is rather bulky and flattish, composed of small 

 Sticks, weed-stalks, strips of bark, and rootlets. The eggs, four or five 

 in number, are an inch or rather more in length, by three-fourths in 

 breadth, i>ale greenish-olive, finely speckled and dotted with reddish- 

 brown, generally all over the surface, though tending to aggregate 

 about the larger end, around which they sometimes form a perfect 

 wreath. 



Family CINCLID^ : Dippers ; Water Ouzels. 



CINCLUS MEXIOANUS, Sw. 



American Dipper; Water Ouzel. 



Cinclus pallasii, Bp., Am. Oru. ii, 1828, 173, pi. 16, f. 1 (not of anthers). 



Cinclus mexicanus, Sw.", PhU. Mag. i, 1827, 368.— Bd., Eev. 1864, 60.— Coop., B. Cal. i, 1870, 

 25.— SuMiCH., Mem. Boat. Soc. i, 1869, 544 (alpine region of Vera Cruz). — CouES, 

 Key, 1872, 77. — Allen, Bull. M. C. Z. iii, 1872, 174 (mountains of Colorado, up 

 to timber-line ; Ogden, Utah).— Meer., U. S. Geol. Surv. Ter. 1872, 671 (Mon- 

 tana). — Dall, Pr. Cal. Acad. 1873 (Unalaska, resident). 

 Hydrobata mexicana, Bd., B. N. A. 1858, 229. — Coop. & Suck., Nat. Hist. Wash. Ter. 

 18C0, 175.— Coop., Am. Nat. iii, 1869, 32 (Montana).— Datl & Bann., Trans. 

 Chic. Acad, i, 1869, 277.— Hold., Pr. Bost. Soc. xv, 1872, 194 (Black Hills). 



Cinclus americanus, Sw. & EiCH., F. B. A. ii, 1831, 173. — Nutt., Man. i, 1832, 569. — AuD., 

 B. Am. ii, 1841, 182, pi. 137.— Newb., P. K. E. Eep. vi, 1857, 80.— Hebkm., P. E. 

 E. Eep. X, 1859, pt. vi, 44. 



Cinclus unicolor, Bp., Comp. and Geog. List, 1838, 18. 



Cinclus mortoni, Towns., Narr. 1839, 337. 



Cinclus townsendii, "AuD." Id., itid. 340. 



Hob. — Clear mountain-streams of Western North America, from the region of the 

 Yukon into Mexico. 



Idst of speiAmms. 



Lata- Expediiions. — 62341-2, Mystic Lake, Montana (Merriam). 



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