The American Dipper 
movement and song. When running along the ground the tail is held 
in much the same manner, and we noted that they preferred running 
along the ground to flying. The pose while singing and the manner 
of flight, also remind one of the Mockingbird.” 
While actually engaged in nesting the bird gives over all attempts 
at song. So great is the irregularity of the nesting season, however, 
even among local birds, that two or three appear to be in song continually 
through the breeding time; and thus a very inadequate idea of the birds’ 
actual numbers is obtained. At the close of the season, or when the 
young are able to fly well, the birds, all absolutely silent now, resort 
in numbers to the hillside springs and brushy draws to feed on berries,— 
wild currants, wild gooseberries, and to a lesser extent, service berries. 
This fondness for small fruit has betrayed the birds into conspicuous 
mischief in the case of isolated ranches and pioneer reclamation projects. 
Almost devoid of fear, the birds troup into the gardens in late July and 
August to strip the currant bushes or blackberries, and later the grape¬ 
vines. The transformation from shy, elusive poet of the sage, to stolid 
glutton of the back-yard garden, is as complete as that which overtakes 
the minstrel Bobolink, and makes him a prosaic “rice-bird.” 
If time allowed, I should like to sing a little paean to the 
Sage Thrasher’s egg, easily the most beautiful among those of an endowed 
family, the Mimidce, and one of the handsomest of all eggs. The ground- 
color of this gem is niagara green, or beryl green, and it is half covered 
with bold spots of liver-brown, with some adumbrations of mars brown. 
So high an opinion do some of the birds have of them, that I have seen 
nests completely roofed over with twigs; but this custom does not seem 
to be established. 
No. 147 
American Dipper 
A. O. U. No. 701 . Cinclus mexicanus unicolor Bonaparte. 
Synonyms.— Water Ouzel. American Water Ouzel. 
Description. — Adults in spring and summer: General plumage slaty gray or 
deep neutral gray, changing on pileum to hair-brown of remaining head and neck; 
wings and tail darker, blackish slate; eyelids touched with white. Bill black; feet 
yellowish. Adults in fall and winter, and immature: Feathers of underparts margined 
with whitish, and some whitish edging on wings. Bill lighter, brownish. Young birds 
are much lighter below; the throat is nearly white and the feathers of remaining under 
plumage are broadly tipped with white, and have wash of rufous posteriorly; tips of 
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