II. 



THE LITTLE LOVER. 



On my sec- 

 ond visit to Cal- 

 ifornia, I spent 

 the winter in 

 the Santa Clara 

 valley, riding 

 among the foot- 

 hills of the San- 

 ta Cruz Moun- 

 tains, where 

 flocks of Oregon 

 robins were rest- 

 ing from the 

 labors of the 

 summer and passing the time until they could 

 fly home again ; but when the first spring wild 

 flowers bloomed on the hills I shipped my little 

 roan mustang by steamer from San Francisco to 

 San Diego, and harried south to meet him and 

 spend the nesting season in the little valley of 

 the Coast Mountains which, five years before, had 

 proved such an ideal place to study birds. 



The Little Lover. 

 (Western House Wren.) 



