WATER OUSELS. 
357 
bird is another of the foster-parents sometimes chosen by 
the Cow Troopial ; and she rears the foundling with her 
accustomed care and affection, and keeps up an incessant 
tsliip when her unfledged brood are even distantly ap- 
proached. They have often two broods in a season in 
the Middle States. Their food is wholly insects and 
their larvae, particularly small coleopterous kinds and ants, 
chiefly collected on the ground. 
This species is 6 inches long, and 9 in alar extent. Above rich 
yellow-olive ; the tips of the wings and inner vanes of the quills dusky 
brown ; the 3 first primaries are about equal. From the nostrils a 
dusky line passes to the hind head ; crown brownish-orange. Be- 
low white, the breast covered with deep brown pencil-shaped spots. 
Legs pale flesh-color. Bill dusky, below whitish. In the female 
the crown is paler. 
WATER OUSELS. (Cinclus, Cuvier.) 
In these birds the bill is of moderate size, straight, compressed, 
the edges sharp and slightly incurved, and with the point of the up- 
per mandible curved over the lower. Nostrils basal, lateral, con-* 
cave, longitudinal, and covered by a membrane. — Tarsus longer 
than the middle toe ; outer toe attached to the inner at the base, the 
lateral toes equal. Wings, with the 3d and 4th primaries longest. 
The female scarcely differs in plumage from the male ; — - the 
young more tinged with rufous. The moult is annual ; and the plu- 
mage water-proof. 
These curious birds associate only in single pairs, and frequent 
brooks and clear streams, diving and walking on the gravelly bottom 
beneath the surface of the water, which constitutes their favorite 
element. They feed on aquatic insects, small Crustacea, and the 
spawn of the trout. They build in the vicinity of rivulets, a well 
concealed, covered, and very artful nest. Their flight is rapid, 
straight, and skimming along the surface of the water. The voice 
is feeble and shrill. — The genus consist of only 2 or 3 species indige- 
nous to the northern, or mild regions. 
