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701. Dipper. American water-ouzel. Cindits mexicanus. L, 6-50. Plate LXXV 
A. A little smaller than the Robin, but with short, stubby tail, solid dull, dark grey all 
over, faintly browning on head in adult and slightly lightening below in juvenility. No 
pattern or defined detail anywhere. 
Distinctions. Solid grey all over without other defined marking and short stubby 
tail not extending back to tips of outstretched toes. Can be mistaken for no other Canadian 
species. 
Field Marks. About the size of a large Sparrow or small Robin; slaty coloration; 
water-frequenting habits about mountain streams; diving, flying, and walking under water; 
dipping or bobbing habit when on land. 
Nesting. In the rocks, near water or behind waterfalls. Nest of moss lined with 
fine grasses, arched over, with entrance in the side. 
DistribvMon. Mountains of western North America. In Canada; British Columbia 
and adjacent Alberta foothills, north to Yukon river. 
A very characteristic bird of the mountain streams. It dives or walks 
into the swiftly running water, disappears and reappears like a witch. Its 
nest is usually behind a waterfall and it dashes to or from it, through the 
falling veil, as indifferently as though a cataract were nothing. It is a 
winter as well as a summer resident and is as much at home on the slippery 
snowy margins and ice-draped rocks as on soft summer moss. 
Economic Status. Unfortunately the Dipper has had laid against it 
well-substantiated charges of devouring large numbers of salmon eggs and 
small fry. As normally scattered, a pair here and another there throughout 
the summer, the damage done is probably slight, but when numbers con- 
gregate about restricted open waters in the winter time, especially in the 
neighbourhood of fish hatcheries, they are factors to be considered. Doubt- 
less local conditions must govern our attitude towards it. In the lonely 
mountain streams it is a rare attraction to the landscape, and should 
receive every protection; where it is economically objectionable it may be 
well to reduce the superabundance. A few Dippers in their proper place 
add an air of wildness to the locality, but many in the wrong place may 
have an unpleasant effect. 
FAMILY — MIMIDAE, MOCKERS AND THRASHERS 
The imitative faculty of the Mockingbird that has given the family 
its name is well developed in Canadian representatives. The family is 
peculiarly American and like many of the subdivisions of the order Passeres 
is difficult to diagnose in non-techuical language. The birds are rather 
large. The Catbird is of even shades of stone-grey and the Thrasher 
bright rufous brown above with heavily spotted whitish or creamy under- 
parts and an unusually long full tail. They are both good mockers and 
diversify their song with imitations of all the common sounds around them, 
including the songs of other birds, and are capable of effects that are rarely 
equalled by the most famous songsters of either the New or Old World. 
702. Sage Thrasher. Oreoscoptes montanus. L, 8 00. Like a small, pale-coloured 
Brown Thrasher (See Plate LXXVI A); back brownish-ash instead of clear rufous-brown; 
in juvenility obscurely striped and feather-edged. Below, dull, creamy white, heavily and 
sharply spotted on throat, breast, and flanks with brown. 
Distinctions. Like a Brown Thrasher but much smaller, and in general dry-earth 
tones, instead of clear rufous-brown, and with white tips to the outer tail feathers. The 
back usually shows a slight suggestion of streaking, that of the Brown Thrasher never does. 
Nesting. In sage brush, nest of thorny sticks, slightly domed and lined with fine 
bark strips. 
Distribution. Western United States, in arid sage-brush plains. In Canada known 
only from the southern Similkameen and Okanagan valleys. 
