Page:The Selkirk mountains (1912).djvu/202

176 and about the cliff-swallow, another species common to the mountains, birds that adapt themselves to new conditions—to wit deserting the river-cliffs and building under the eaves of the water-tanks.

A more interesting bird of the mountains is the Water Ousel or Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) a stout little fellow of a grayish slate colour, making his home on the margin of the brooks and cataracts. The nest is usually built on a ledge behind a small sheet of water, its outside dripping wet and looking like a lump of growing moss. The entrance is on the side away from the water, and the inside is dry and warm.

Professor Macoun emphasizes the game-birds found by him in the mountains. There are six species of grouse plentiful in their various native localities and altitudes. The white-tailed Ptarmigan (Lagopus leucurus) lives entirely among the summits in summer, retiring in winter to the trees at timber-line.

Immediately below is the habitat of Franklin's Grouse (Dendragapus franklinii), the "fool-hen" of the prospector and so called because it sits complacently on a branch until killed by a stick or stone. The name is now, and for the same reason, applied to another species, Richardson's Grouse (Dendragapus richardsonii). Much ammunition has been saved to mountain travellers by these stupid birds, and they make good eating. A third species is the Dusky or Sooty Grouse (Dendragapus fuliginuosus) whose tail is tipped with a band of ashy grey. Richardson's Grouse is all of one dusky colour which gives it the popular name, Blue Grouse. The male of Franklin's Grouse has a black tail sometimes tipped with pure white. It is a beautiful bird to see and ought to be killed only by compulsion of hunger. Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus togata) occur around the base of the mountains and nest in great numbers throughout the burnt timber along the Columbia.

There are various species of ducks. Two that nest in numbers are the "Saw-Bills"—the Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus) and the American Merganser (Merganser Amercicanus). Another species is the Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus). Of Geese there were, before the railway came, breeding grounds along the Columbia near Golden, but they soon abandoned the locality. Wilson's Snipe (Gallinago delicata), as late as 1890, were breeding near the water tank at Revelstoke, and are still a common species.

Eagles are not common to these mountains, though they are occasionally seen. The Bald-headed Eagle (Haliaetus leucoccphalus) can be identified by the tarsus (shank) being naked all round its lower part and to the base of the toes; the Golden Eagle (Aquiia chrysactos) by its tarsus thickly feathered to the base of the toes.

Crows (Corrvs americanus) are found in large numbers; Ravens (Corus corax principalis) rarely, and then only in pairs or singly. A species, called in Canada Clarke's Crow (Picirorvus columbianus), is often confounded with the Rocky Mountain Whiskey Jack (Perissorcus canadensis capitalis) a much smaller bird. Both haunt camps and eat garbage, but the former is a nutcracker and lives in the conifers well up on the mountains. The Black-headed Jay (Cyanncitta stelleri annectens) is a beautiful bird closely related to Steller's Jay of the Pacific Coast, and easily distinguished from it by a whitish spot over the eye.