The American Dipper 
Taken in Fresno County Photo by the A ulhor 
THE AMERICAN DIPPER AT HOME 
Apropos of visitations to hatcheries, 
another observer, also in British Colum¬ 
bia, tells how a bird one day found his way 
into the hatching-house through an aper¬ 
ture which admitted the water from a 
flume outside. Although the top of this 
hole w'as three inches underwater, the bird, 
frightened by the strange surroundings, 
made for it instantly and so escaped. 
The Ouzel is non-migratory, but the 
summer haunts of the birds in the moun¬ 
tains are largely closed to them in winter, so 
that they find it necessary at that season 
to retreat to the lower levels. This is 
done, as it were, reluctantly, and nothing 
short of the actual blanketing of snow 
or ice will drive them to forsake the 
higher waters. The bird is essentially 
solitary at this season, as in summer, 
and when it repairs to a lower station, 
along late in November, there is no little 
strife engendered by the discussion of 
metes and bounds. In the winter of 
1895-6, being stationed at Chelan, in 
Washington, I had occasion to note that 
the same Ouzels appeared daily along 
the upper reaches of the Chelan River. 
Thinking that such a local attachment 
might be due to similar occupation down 
stream, I set out one afternoon to follow 
the river down for a mile or so, and to 
ascertain, if possible, how many bird- 
squatters had laid out claims along its 
turbulent course. In places where there 
was an unusually long succession of 
rapids, it was not always possible to 
decide between the conflicting interests 
of rival claimants, for they flitted up 
and down, overlapping by short flights 
each other’s domains; but the very fact 
that these overlappings often occasioned 
sharp passages at arms, served to confirm 
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