. Then what does
he do? He has a very natural and cunning way of solving this problem; he
simply seeks a deep portion of the river and dives through the turbid
water to the clear water beneath, where he can plainly see the "goodies"
on the bottom.

It must not be thought that this little bird is mute amid all the watery
tumult of his mountain home, for he is a rare vocalist, his song
mingling with the ripple and gurgle and roar of the streams that he
haunts. Nor does he sing only in the springtime, but all the year round,
on stormy days as well as fair. During Indian summer, when the streams
are small, and silence broods over many a mountain solitude, the song of
the ousel falls to its lowest ebb; but when winter comes and the streams
are converted into rolling torrents, he resumes his vocal efforts, which
reach their height in early summer. Thus it would seem that the bird's
mood is the gayest when his favorite stream is dashing at its noisiest
and most rapid pace down the steep mountain defiles. The clamor of the
stream often drowns the song of the bird, the movement of his mandibles
being seen when not a sound from his music-box can be heard. There must
be a feeling of fellowship between the bird and the stream he loves so
well.

[Illustration: "_No snowstorm can discourage him_"]

You will not be surprised to learn that the dipper is an extremely hardy
bird. No snowstorm, however violent, can discourage him, but in the
midst of it all he sings his most cheerful lays, as if defying all the
gods of the winds. While other birds, even the hardy nuthatches, often
succumb to discouragement in cold weather, and move about with
fluffed-up feathers, the very picture of dejection--not so the little
dipper, who always preserves his cheerful temper, and is ready to say,
in acts, if not in words: "Isn't this the jolliest weather you ever
saw?" Away up in Alaska, where the glaciers hold perpetual sway, this
bird has been seen in the month of November as glad and blithesome as
were his comrades in the summery gorges of New Mexico.

PLAINS AND FOOTHILLS

[Illustration: PLATE V

LOUISIANA TANAGER--_Pyranga ludoviciana_
(Upper figure, male; lower, female)]

The foregoing chapters contain a recital of observations made in the
neighborhood of Colorado Springs and in trips on the plains and among
the mountains in that latitude. Two years later--that is, in 1901--the
rambler's good angel again smiled upon him and made po