268 LAND BIRDS 



tree trunk, and I think some signal note was uttered by 

 the latter whicli told the nestlings that dinner was ready. 

 Later on, in another locality, I witnessed the d^but 

 of one of these interesting water-babies. He was a 

 comical counterpart of the adults, wink and all, except 

 for the touch of white on his feathers and his absurdly 

 short tail, rendered more absurd by his continual bob- 

 bing dip. This dipping on the part of young and old 

 Water Ouzels' is a distressingly undecided performance, 

 as if the bird could not quite make up his mind whether 

 or not to sit down, and stood continually in the valley 

 of indecision. This young Ouzel remained all day on a 

 ledge at the foot of the wall of rock which held his 

 former nursery, and was fed by the male as devotedly 

 as though still in the nest. So long as it was light 

 enough to see, he was there, and at my last glimpse of 

 him he stood winking and dipping in the same funny 

 way. The other nestlings were still in the oven-like 

 ball of green moss wherein they had been hatched, and 

 their heads filled the doorway in eager petitioning for 

 food. It never came often enough or in sufficient quan- 

 tities to satisfy them, and one could only wonder when 

 the overworked parents found time to supply their own 

 needs. 



702. SAGE THRASHER. — Oroscoptes montanus. 

 Family : The Wrens, Thrashers, etc. 



Length: 8.00-9.00. 



Adults : Upper parts brownish gray, indistinctly streaked ; two narrow 

 white wing-bars ; inner webs of two to four outer tail-feathers broadly 

 tipped with white ; under parts whitish, tinged with buffy on flanks 



