she threw herself into the stream, and let it carry her down, like
a duck, a foot or two, while she looked intently on the bottom, then
simply walked up out of it on to a stone. I could see that her plumage
was not in the least wet; a drop or two often rested on her back when
she came out, but it rolled off in a moment. She never even shook
herself. The food she brought to that eager youngling every few minutes
looked like minute worms, doubtless some insect larvae.

Several times this hard-working mother plunged into the brook where it
was shallow, ran or walked down it, half under water, and stopped on the
very brink of the lower fall, where one would think she could not even
stand, much less turn back and run up stream, which she did freely. This
looked to me almost as difficult as for a man to stand on the brink of
Niagara, with the water roaring and tumbling around him. Now and then
the bird ran or flew up, against the current, and entirely under water,
so that I could see her only as a dark-colored moving object, and then
came out all fresh and dry beside the baby, with a mouthful of food. I
should hardly dare to tell this, for fear of raising doubts of my
accuracy, if the same thing had not been seen and reported by others
before me. Her crowning action was to stand with one foot on each of two
stones in the middle and most uproarious part of the little fall, lean
far over, and deliberately pick something from a third stone.

All this was no show performance, even no frolic, on the part of the
ouzel,--it was simply her every-day manner of providing for the needs of
that infant; and when she considered the duty discharged for the time,
she took her departure, very probably going at once to the care of a
second youngster who awaited her coming in some other niche in the
rocks.

Finding himself alone again, and no more dainties coming his way, the
young dipper turned for entertainment to the swift-running streamlet. He
went down to the edge, stepping easily, never hopping; but when the
shallow edge of the water ran over his pretty white toes, he hastily
scampered back, as if afraid to venture farther. The clever little rogue
was only coquetting, however, for when he did at last plunge in he
showed himself very much at home. He easily crossed a turbulent bit of
the brook, and when he was carried down a little he scrambled without
trouble up on a stone. All the time, too, he was peering about after
food; and in fact