The mountains of California . terproof suit of bluishgray, with a tinge of chocolate on the head andshoulders. In form he is about as smoothly plumpand compact as a pebble that has been whirled ina pot-hole, the flowing contour of his body beinginterrupted only by his strong feet and bill, thecrisp wing-tips, and the up-slanted wren-like all the countless waterfalls I have metin the course of ten years exploration in the Sierra,whether among the icy peaks, or warm foot-hills,or in the profound yosemitic canons of the middleregion, not one was found without its Ouzel. Nocanon is too
The mountains of California . terproof suit of bluishgray, with a tinge of chocolate on the head andshoulders. In form he is about as smoothly plumpand compact as a pebble that has been whirled ina pot-hole, the flowing contour of his body beinginterrupted only by his strong feet and bill, thecrisp wing-tips, and the up-slanted wren-like all the countless waterfalls I have metin the course of ten years exploration in the Sierra,whether among the icy peaks, or warm foot-hills,or in the profound yosemitic canons of the middleregion, not one was found without its Ouzel. Nocanon is too cold for this little bird, none too lonely,provided it be rich in falling water. Find a fall,or cascade, or rushing rapid, anywhere upon a clearstream, and there you will surely find its comple-mentary Ouzel, flitting about in the spray, divingin foaming eddies, whirling like a leaf among beatenfoam-bells; ever vigorous and enthusiastic, yet self-contained, and neither seeking nor shunning yourcompany. 276 THE WATEK-OUZEL 277. WATER-OUZEL DIVING AND FEEDING. If disturbed while dipping about in the marginshallows, he either sets off with a rapid whir tosome other feeding-ground up or down the stream,or alights on some half-submerged rock or snagout in the current, and immediately begins to nodand courtesy like a wren, turning his head fromside to side with many other odd dainty move- 278 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA ments that never fail to fix the attention of theobserver. He is the mountain streams own darling, thehumming-bird of blooming waters, loving rockyripple-slopes and sheets of foam as a bee lovesflowers, as a lark loves sunshine and all the mountain birds, none has cheeredme so much in my lonely wanderings,—none soimfailingly. For both in Avinter and summer hesings, sweetly, cheerily, independent alike of sun-shine and of love, requiring no other inspirationthan the stream on which he dwells. Wliile watersings, so must he, in heat or cold, calm or storm
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectcaliforniadescriptio
