ilay,1911 
LITERARY PRIXCIPLRS IX ORXITIIOLOdiCAL WRITIXO 
87 
And dark surf-echoing cave; the cormorants, 
Jet fishermen and gatherers of mosses gay, 
Who on the terraced rock their cities of weed 
Would build; web-footed pigeons of the sea 
That whispering, cooed along the spray-tossed shores; 
The snowy gulls with mouse-gray backs and black- 
Tipped wings, that plundered all their feathered kin; 
The queer-beaked puffins with long flowing curls 
That in the rock recesses lived; and with 
The night, from sea, and from their burrows came 
The auklet-thousands with weird cries; and from 
The crannied rocks the perfumed petrel. 
Daintiest traveller of the sea, lone welcomer of storms. 
But all this noisy crew gave nought to the isles 
Of song. Yet, w^andering wdth the winds 
From granite gorge or sea-opposing cliff 
Rare melody would come: the rock-wren’s song; 
That oft the islanders would pause to hear. 
So wflld and free and crystal clear it was! 
So strangely sweet, so ever new! And they 
Had found where paths by myriad pebbles paved 
To hidden bowers led; quaint tiny caves 
Wherein a floor was made of tide-worn stones 
And bones of furred and finned and feathered tribes. 
Long-bleached by sea and sun and inlaid bright 
With bits of abalone pearl, while scattered lay 
A world of treasure! No jackdaw’s cache 
Ere rivaled the wealth of these Salpinctian homes. 
NESTING HABITS OE THE WESTERN ELYCATCHER 
By HARRIET WILLIAMS MVIiRS 
WITH ONE PHOTO 
O N June 17, 1910, I made a trip to Camp Rincon, in the San Gabriel Can- 
yon, !,for a week’s bird study. From Los Angeles we went by trolley to 
Azusa, and from there 14 miles by stage through the San Gabriel Canyon 
to the camp, which is very near the San Gabriel River and has an elevation of 2000 
feet. One of the pretty trips from this camp was to a place called Fern Canyon. 
It extended about one half mile into the mountains and was so narrow in many 
places that it was little more than a trail beside a small stream. The banks rose 
high above our heads and w’ere overgrown with shrubs and trees. Alders pre- 
dominated, but there were also rock maples, oaks, sycamores and bays. 
On June 21, at almost the end of the canyon, in an alder tree that grew close 
beside the water, I discovered a pair of Western Flycatchers! Knipidouax difficilis) 
feeding their young. The nest was on the southeast side of the tree in a crotch 
made by a dead stub a foot long. There were no leaves near it, .so our view' was 
