Water ouzel

“ So, too, is the water-ouzel, a bird of the alpine brooks in the mountains of the West that has been immortalized by John Muir. But few species of birds sing every day in the year. One of those that do is the water-ouzel.
Most birds and animals appear to desire human society. Birds will leave the seclusion of the forest to build by the roadside where people pass. Some kinds of little feathered folk have deserted old nesting-scenes and now nest by human homes. Robins, wrens, and bluebirds confidingly raise their families in the scenes where children romp and play. ”

“ When we see land-birds occasionally feeding by the water-side, and then learn that one of them, the water-ouzel, an "anomalous member of the strictly terrestrial thrush family, wholly subsists by diving—grasping the stones with its feet and using its wings under water"—we are enabled to comprehend how, under pressure of population, aquatic habits may be acquired by creatures organized for aërial life; and how there may eventually arise an ornithic type in which the traits of the bird are very much disguised. ”

“ The American water-ouzel resembles a catbird in appearance, is solitary in its habits, and lives along the banks of dashing streams. It will surprise the spectator by dropping suddenly int o a brawling mountain cataract, and then ap pear swimming along through the pools by the use of its wings or, it may be, running swiftly along the bottom. Its food is composed of small mollusks or aquatic insects and their larvae, which it seeks among the stones at the bottom. ”

“ The body of the ouzel is about as big as a robin's, but looks much smaller, because his very short tail gives him a "chunky" look. His wings are short and rounded, and his plumage is very soft and so thick that he can go under water without getting wet. He is slate-color all over, a little paler on the breast, and his mate is exactly like him, but the young ouzel has all the under feathers tipped with white, and usually a white throat. Both old and young have shining white eyelids which show very plainly among their dark feathers. ”

“ Both have white chemisettes, but the common water-ouzel (Cinclus aquaticus of Gould) has a white bodice, and the other a black one, the bird being called therefore, in ugly Greek, 'Melanogaster,' 'black-stomached.' The black bodice is Norwegian fashion—the white, English; and I find that in Switzerland there is an intermediate Robin-ouzel, with a red bodice: but the ornithologists are at variance as to his 'specific' existence. The chemisette is always white. ”

“ They are mostly shore birds, living at the edge of irregularly broken water, either streams or sea; and the representative of the whole group with which we will begin is the mysterious little water-ouzel, or 'oiselle,' properly the water-blackbird,—Buffon's 'merle d'eau'—for ouzel is the classic and poetic word for the blackbird, or ouzel-cock, "so black of hue," in 'Midsummer Night's Dream.' Johnson gives it from the Saxon 'osle'; but in Chaucer it must be understood simply as the feminine of oiseau. ”

“ Every aquatic bird with which I am acquainted moves much faster when diving than when it is swimming or walking, and its course is generally in a straight line, or nearly so; but the Water Ouzel, when feeding, turns to the right or left, or back again to where it started, stops and goes on again, just as it does when out of the water. ”

“ However dressed, and wherever born, the Ouzel is essentially a mountain-torrent bird, and, Bewick says, may be seen perched on a stone in the midst of a stream, in a continual dipping motion, or short curtsey often repeated, while it is watching for its food, which consists of small fishes and insects,—water insects, that is to say, caught mostly at the bottom; many-legged and shrimpy things, according to Gould's plate. The popular tradition that it can walk under the water has been denied by scientific people ”

“ Scurrying and creeping among the rock-crannies are the larvae of stoneflies, mayflies, and caddisflies. These and the small fish that venture up from lower lakes are the food of the water ouzel, a creature that loves the places where the waters thunder. ”

“ Another specially interesting bird which does something nearly approaching to flying under water is the dipper. The ouzel is essentially a bird of the running brook, though as to what part this pretty white-breasted thrush plays in the economy of nature naturalists are by no means agreed. Its most frequent stand is upon some mossy stone in a river reach, and here its crescented form may oftenest be seen. It haunts the brightly-running streams in winter as in summer, and when these are transformed into roaring torrents seems to love them best. ”

“ Animals practice concealment to secure their prey, but not deception, as man does. They do not use lures or disguises, or traps or poison.
There is, of course, no limit to the variety and adaptiveness of nature taken as a whole, but each species is hedged about by impassable limitations. The ouzel is akin to the thrushes, and yet it lives along and in the water. Does it ever take to the fields and woods, and live on fruit and land-insects, and nest in trees like other thrushes? So with all birds and beasts. ”

“ Cedar Waxwing—Smaller than robin; similar to above, but abdomen yellowish, not quite so much white on wings.
Water Ouzel or American Dipper—Little larger than sparrow; slate-color with brown head and neck; frequents water, particularly rapids or falls. His song is remarkably sweet and lively, and he never hesitates when singing to dive into the water and swim away at a lively rate.
California Towhee
California Towhee—About the size of a robin ”

“ I have often been delighted to see a pure, spiritual glow come into the countenances of hard business-men and old miners, when a song-bird chanced to alight near them. Nevertheless, the little mouthful of meat that swells out the breasts of some song-birds is too often the cause of their death. Larks and robins in particular are brought to market in hundreds. But fortunately the Ouzel has no enemy so eager to eat his little body as to follow him into the mountain solitudes. ”

“ It is pitiful to see wee frost-pinched sparrows on cold mornings in the mountain groves shaking the snow from their feathers, and hopping about as if anxious to be cheery, then hastening back to their hidings out of the wind, puffing out their breast-feathers over their toes, and subsiding among the leaves, cold and breakfastless, while the snow continues to fall, and there is no sign of clearing. But the Ouzel never calls forth a single touch of pity ”

“ For ducks go ashore as soon as they finish feeding in undisturbed places, and very often make long flights over land from lake to lake or field to field. The same is true of most other aquatic birds. But the Ouzel, born on the brink of a stream, or on a snag or boulder in the midst of it, seldom leaves it for a single moment. For, notwithstanding he is often on the wing, he never flies overland, but whirs with, rapid, quail-like beat above the stream, tracing all its windings. ”

“ If disturbed, or suddenly frightened, the Ousel will flit up or down the stream. Sometimes the bird will wing its way to the opposite bank. It delights in the water, and spends hours in wading about and seeking its food among the pebbles and sand. The cute little fellow bathes almost constantly. Every few minutes it will dip its plump little body under the water, and then shake its feathers.
The bird is always cheerful and full of action. Never for an instant is the Ousel at rest. It is always on the move, uttering its short, plaintive chirp. The Ousel is not wild, nor even timid. ”

“ The water-ousel's nest is a very curious structure—outwardly resembling a wren's, but built on a wholly different principle—an ordinary cup-shaped nest of grass lined with dead leaves, placed in some convenient niche, but encased with moss so as to form a large mass that covers it completely except a small hole for the bird's passage. The eggs laid within are from four to seven in number, and are of a pure white. The young are able to swim before they are fully fledged. ”

“ Grace and sprightly action characterize the Water Ousel. It is as quick as a flash. The bird never deserts the stream. No difference how attractive may be the wooded banks, it does not lose itself in the sylvan depths. ”

“ Oyster’s shell and pays no rent at all.”
“Tell me about it,” demanded the boy named Billy. “I always supposed that pearls grew at the bottom of the sea.”
“So they do,” said Somebody, “about fifteen fathoms deep is where the pearl bearing oyster lives. He is rather particular about his home and selects a place where there is a swift current of water. There he and his family lie on the hard bed of the ocean and wait for the current to bring their food. Sometimes they prefer to attach themselves to an overhanging ledge, where they live closely huddled together. ”

“ Lumps of ooze, of the most lustrous green color, traversed by a natural network of thin red veins of iron, appear here and there in large irregular patches, over which water is dripping slowly and incessantly in certain places. This is the salt water percolating through invisible crannies in the rock. On stormy days it spirts out furiously in thin continuous streams. Just over our heads we observe a wooden plug of the thickness of a man's leg; there is a hole here, and the plug is all that we have to keep out the sea. ”

“ The bottom and sides of these caves or reservoirs are paved with stones and thick layers of sand, to keep them free from all mud, which is not only very injurious to the animal, but sure to harbour its enemies; and great care is also observed not to admit too great a flow of water at one time, as that might drive particles of sand into the shells. When the reservoir is properly prepared, the oysters are placed in their natural position—the flat side being upwards, in a sloping or horizontal direction. ”

“ Wish I had some of the fine oysters they tell us grow down South. Your sister Nellie gave me several recipes to try, and I'm going to spring them on you the first chance, see if I don't."
"Well, I only hope you have better success than the said Nellie usually has. My dad threatens to send her to cooking school before she kills off the entire family with her experiments. But as to the oysters, you must wait till we get out of the river. This is fresh water. Mussels or fresh-water clams grow in such places, but hardly oysters," observed Frank. ”

“ The parent-oyster has, indeed, a prodigious family to turn out upon the world. But when this time does come, though winter be near, her actions are summary, and the wee bairns are every one ordered from home. They are spit forth, or ejected from the shell. Filled with water, the valves are suddenly snapped together. Every snap emits a small, whitish cloud. Though a little of the milky fluid be in it, this whitish cloud is composed chiefly of the tiny fry; for, individually, they are almost invisible. Indeed, who shall count the oyster's offspring? Science, by her own methods ”

“ Nature, too, has given the oyster a sensitive perception of the changes of light as the means of its protection from the many enemies it has to contend with; for if the shadow of an approaching boat is thrown forward so as to cover it, it closes the valves of its shell before any undulation of the water can have reached it. ”

“ The villagers on the river-bank are fishermen, and live greatly on river oysters, as is attested by the enormous heaps of oyster-shells surrounding each hamlet. These oysters are found on the rocks at lowest water, and though we never attempted to eat them, the shells interested us greatly, answering exactly to the description of the Aetheria semilunata, having very rough outsides, and the interior showing a very beautiful mother-of-pearl appearance—exquisitely iridescent, with raised pearly blisters. ”

“ When ripe the sexual products ooze from the genital openings and fertilization results from their accidental meeting in the water. Segmentation results in five or six hours in the production of a ciliated gastrula, a cup-shaped, free-swimming organism, often carried by the currents to found new and remote beds. An embryonic shell soon appears, and the little oyster sinks to the bottom, where, if favorably situated, it becomes attached by its left valve and gradually assumes the adult form. ”

“ In the opinion of scientific writers, water containing 3 per cent. of salt is most suitable for oyster development, water above that salinity being too strong, and that below it too weak. It has also been well pointed out by Mr. henry Woodward, in his admirable pamphlet on Oyster Culture in New South Wales, that most of our deep water beds are situated in the rivers, a little way from the sea. Under favourable circumstances there is just that commingling of the fresh water from the river and the salt water from the sea which produces the oyster to perfection. ”

“ Now the small river, or rather rivulet, of Ouzel, from which the town takes its name, steals out from deep banks covered with brushwood or aged trees, and widening into brief importance, glides under the arches of an ancient bridge; runs on, clear and shallow, to refresh low fertile dairy-meadows, dotted with kine; and finally quits the view, as brake and copse close round its narrowing, winding way ”