THE HUMMING-BIRD OF THE CALIFORNIA WATER-FALLS. 551 
the vanished glaciers, becSuse the main 
forests of these regions to which they come 
and go are growing upon the lateral mo¬ 
raines which always stretch along the to})s 
of the canon walls. 
The ouzel’s nest is one of the most extra¬ 
ordinary pieces of bird architecture I ever 
beheld; so odd and novel in design, and so 
perfectly fresh and beautiful, and in every 
way so fully worthy of the genius of the little 
builder. It is about a foot in diameter, 
round and bossy in outline, with a neatly 
arched opening near the bottom, somewhat 
like an old-fashioned brick oven, or Hot¬ 
tentot’s hut. It is built almost exclusively 
of green and yellow mosses, chiefly the 
beautiful fronded hypnum that covers the 
rocks and old drift-logs in the vicinity of 
water-falls. These are deftly interwoven, 
and felted together into a charming little 
hut; and so situated that many of the 
outer mosses continue to flourish as if they 
had not been plucked. A few fine silky¬ 
stemmed grasses are occasionally found in¬ 
terwoven with the mosses, but, with the 
exception of a thin layer lining the floor, 
their presence seems accidental, as they are 
of a species found growing with the mosses 
and are probably plucked with them. The 
site chosen for this curious mansion is 
usually some little rock-shelf within reach 
of the spray of a water-fall, so that its walls 
are kept green and growing, at least during 
the time of high water. 
No harsh lines are presented by any 
portion of the nest as seen in situ, but 
when removed from its shelf, the back and 
bottom, and sometimes a portion of the top, 
is found quite sharply angular because it is 
made to conform to the surface of the rock, 
upon which and against which it is built; 
the little architect always taking advantage 
of slight crevices and protuberances that 
may chance to offer, to render liis structure 
stable, by means of a kind of gripping and 
dovetailing. 
In choosing a building spot, concealment 
does not seem to be taken into considera¬ 
tion at all; yet notwithstanding the nestis 
so large, and so guilelessly exposed to view, 
it is far from being easily detected, chiefly 
because it swells forward like any other 
bulging moss-cushion growing naturally in 
such situations. This is more especially 
the case where the nest is kept fresh by 
being well sprinkled. Sometimes these 
romantic little huts have their beauty en¬ 
hanced by tasteful decorations of rock- 
ferns and grasses, that spring up around 
the walls or in front of the door-sill, all 
dripping with crystal beads. 
Furthermore, at certain hours of the day 
when the sunshine is poured down at the 
re(}uired angle, the whole ma.ss of the spray 
enveloping the fairy establishment is bril¬ 
liantly irised ; and it is through so glorious 
a rainbow atmosphere as this that some of 
our blessed ouzels obtain their first peep at 
the world. 
Ouzels seem so completely part and 
parcel of the streams they inhabit, they 
scarce suggest any other origin than the 
streams themselves; and one might almost 
be pardoned in fancying they come direct 
from the living waters like flowers from 
the ground,—a kind of winged water-lily. 
At least, from whatever cause, it never 
occurred to me to look for their nests until 
more than a year after I had made the 
acquaintance of the birds themselves, al¬ 
though I found one the very day on which 
I began the search. In making my way 
from Yosemite to the glaciers of the adja¬ 
cent Alps, I camped in a particularly wild 
and romantic portion of the Nevada canon 
where in previous excursions I had never 
once failed to enjoy the delightful company 
of my favorites, who were attracted here, 
no doubt, by the extraordinary abundance 
of white water. The river, for miles above 
and below, consists of a succession of small 
falls from ten to sixty feet in height, con¬ 
nected by flat, plume-like cascades that go 
flashing from fall to fall, free and channelless, 
over waving folds of glacier polished granite. 
On the south side of one of the falls, that 
portion of the precipice which is bathed 
by the spray presents a series of little 
shelves and tablets caused by the devel¬ 
opment of planes of cleavage in the 
granite, and the consequent fall of masses 
through the action of the water. Now 
JiercC said I, “of all places, is the most 
charming spot for an ouzel’s nest.” Then 
carefully scanning the fretted face of the 
precipice through the spray, I at length 
noticed a large, yellowish moss-cushion, 
growing on the edge of a level tablet with¬ 
in five or six feet of the outer folds of the 
fall. But apart from the fact of its being 
situated exactly where one acquainted with 
the lives of ouzels would fancy an ouzel’s 
nest ought to be, there was nothing in its 
appearance visible at first sight, to distin¬ 
guish it from other bosses bf rock-moss, 
similarly situated with reference to perennial 
spray; and it was not until I had scrutinized 
it again and again, and had removed my 
