188 



ORDERS OF BIRDS— PEEOHERS AND SINGERS 



November, on the strip of ice which fringed the 

 edge of the roaring, swirling, icy-cold water which 

 plunges into the Shoshone Canyon at the forks 

 of the Shoshone River. Man or beast stepping 

 into that foaming torrent would have been 

 crushed against the rocks, and drowned at the 



.MOCKING-BIRD. 



same moment, — two deaths in one. In that 

 grim and terrible solitude, fast in the embrace 

 of early winter, we saw on the snow-white brink 

 of the ice-bank a tiny dark object, which closer 

 inspection revealed to be a bird. It looked like 

 a large gray wren. 



As we paused to regard it, it blithely flew 

 down into mid-stream, and dived head foremost 

 into a chilly wave that ran ten miles an hour. 

 An instant later it reappeared, all unruffled and 

 unwet, blithely flew back to the edge of the ice, 

 and alighted once more. Then we knew well 

 what it was ; for it could be nothing else than the 

 Water-Ouzel. Afterward, we saw others along 

 the line of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway 

 where it winds its way through the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. Where the walls of the Royal Gorge al- 

 most crowd the train into the Arkansas River 

 is a good place to watch for them. 



This bird is a diving thrush ! Nature has 



fitted it to dive boldly into the coldest and most 

 turbulent water, or through a water-fall, and 

 even to walk on the bottom of a still pool, with- 

 out being at all disturbed. Both in form and 

 size this little creature is like a large wren, but 

 it is so peculiar it occupies a genus quite alone. 

 Of course it is not web-footed; and in appear- 

 ance it exhibits not one feature suggestive of a 

 semi-aquatic life. Its home is along the foam- 

 ing torrents of the Rocky Mountains, and Sierra 

 Xevadas, from Alaska to Guatemala. It nests 

 close beside swift-running streams, sometimes 

 beside or even behind a cascade. It is known 

 that this strange bird gives forth a song both 

 clear and sweet, but I have never seen one else- 

 where than near a roaring torrent, where no or- 

 dinary bird-song could be heard. 



THE WARBLER FAMILY. 



Mniotiltidae. 

 From the middle of April to the middle of 

 September, the woods and thickets of the north- 

 ern states are inhabited by a very considerable 

 number of tiny bird-forms. They are trim- 

 built little creatures, quiet and business-like, 

 and they take themselves very seriously. A 

 few of them are clad in refined shades of yellow, 

 but — most fortunately — the great majority wear 

 dull olive, gray or brown colors, and thereby 

 escape the hostile attention that bright plumage 

 always attracts. 



These are the warblers, grand in the destruc- 

 tion of insects, but the most elusive and difficult 

 little creatures with which bird-students have to 

 deal. 



The difficulty lies in studying them effectively 

 without killing them. As for myself, I have not 

 yet seen the day wherein I could find myself 

 willing to slaughter from five hundred to a thou- 

 sand of these exquisite little creatures for the sake 

 of becoming sufficiently acquainted with them 

 to name them when they are dead! I blush 

 not in admitting that I have gone half way 

 through life knowing less than a score of war- 

 blers to the point of naming them, accurately, as 

 they fly before me. My exhortation to all young 

 people is — do not slaughter birds, oj any kind, 

 merely to become acquainted with their names. 

 Some of the wild flowers can endure that method 

 without extermination, but the wild birds and 

 mammals cannot. 



