THE HUMMING-BIRD OF THE CALIFORNIA WATER-FALLS. 
550 
to field. The same 
is true of most other 
aquatic birds. But 
our ouzel, born on 
the very brink of a 
stream, seldom 
leaves it for a single 
moment. For, not¬ 
withstanding he is 
often on the wing, 
he never flies over¬ 
land, but whirs with 
rapid, quail-like beat 
above the stream, 
tracing all its wind¬ 
ing modulations 
with great minute¬ 
ness. Even when 
the stream is quite 
small, say from five 
to ten feet wide, he 
will not trv to short- 
en his flight by 
crossing a bend, 
however abrupt it 
may be; and even 
when disturbed by 
meeting some one 
on the bank, he prefers to fly over one’s 
head, to dodging out over the ground. 
When therefore his flight along a crooked 
stream is viewed endwise, it appears most 
strikingly wavered—an interpretation of 
every curve inscribed with lightning-like 
rapidity on the air. 
The vertical curves and angles of the most 
precipitous Alpine torrents he traces with the 
same rigid fidelity. Swooping adown the 
inclines of cascades, dropping sheer oyer 
dizzy falls amid the spray, and ascending 
with the same fearlessness and ease, seldom 
seeking to lessen the steepness of the acclivity 
by beginning to ascend before reaching the 
base of the fall. No matter how high it 
may be, he holds straight on as if about to 
dash headlong into the throng of booming 
rockets, then darts abruptly upward, and, 
after alighting at the top of the precipice to 
rest a moment, proceeds to feed and sing. 
His flight is solid and impetuous without 
any intermission of wing-beats,—one homo¬ 
geneous buzz like that of a laden bee on its 
way home. And while thus buzzing freely 
from fall to fall, he is frequently heard giving 
utterance to a long outdrawn train of un¬ 
modulated notes, in no way connected with 
his song, but corresponding closely with his 
flight, both in sustained vigor, and homo¬ 
geneity of substance. 
THE OUZEL AT HOME. 
Were the flights of every individual ouzel 
in the Sierra traced on a chart, they would 
indicate the direction of the flow of the 
entire system of ancient glaciers, from about 
the period of the breaking up of the ice- 
sheet until near the close of the glacial 
winter; because the streams which the 
ouzels so rigidly folloAV, are, with the un¬ 
important exceptions of a few side tribu¬ 
taries, all flowing in channels eroded for 
them out of the solid flank of the range by 
the vanished glaciers,—the streams tracing 
the glaciers, the ouzels tracing the streams. 
Nor do we find so complete compliance to 
glacial conditions in the life of any other 
mountain bird, or animal of any kind. 
Bears frequently accept the path-ways laid 
down by glaciers as the easiest to travel; 
but then, they often leave them and cross 
over from canon to canon. So also, most 
birds found in rocky canons at all usually 
fly across at right angles to the courses of 
