340 
LAND OF SUNSHINE. 
cruelty of this tyrant, for he kills his prey before hanging; al¬ 
ways by blows on the back of the neck and head. So he is not 
the heartless creature he is supposed to be. He is the agricul¬ 
turist’s friend, and very interesting as a study. Close acquaint¬ 
ance with him reveals him to be a bird with an occasional 
musical note, some charm of manner, and a graceful though 
solitary personality. It is probably on account of his prefer¬ 
ence for a meat diet that he is shunned by other birds. The 
butcher bird nests with us in March and April. The eggs are 
usually six in number, of a greyish-brown mottled appearance. 
The nests are large and compact. So heavy are they, inter¬ 
twined with string and .sticks in a general structure of wild 
sage, that one imagines them to be partly of mud like a robin’s. 
Why this preference for sage, is a question. We have never 
found a butcher’s nest built wholly of any other material. 
Possibly it is to keep away the mites, as these parasites are 
well known to infest the nests of most birds. 
The butcher bird makes its nest in orange trees and hedges, 
or other low trees and shrubs, often within easy reach. 
Whether they succeed better than the mockers in rearing their 
young is not certain, for the birds are not too common. They 
may be seen in the uplands and mesas, but not so frequently 
in our house gardens. They are not nois}?^ birds as we know 
them, except for a harsh scream once in a while, and, but for 
their hooked bills, might find a warm place in the hearts of all. 
Pasadtaa, Cal. 
The Professor s Wealth. 
BY T. S. VAN DYKE. 
Author of Millionaires of a Day^ etc. 
■•fook tired tonight, John,” said the wife of Professor Dump- 
kih'^as, he came in. 
_ “YeSf, there are several other tired folks in town. Prices 
haven’t risen any for a day or two.” 
“ Why not sell as they are ? You say your lots are worth a hundred 
thousand dollars, and that is thirty times what you began with a year 
ago.” 
” I have been trying all day-to sell,” he was about to say, but the 
words died upon his tongue. P'of it was in the height of the great real 
estate boom of 1886-1887 that raged'SQ,yiolently over Southern Califor¬ 
nia—a bubble that swelled and rolled never so brightly as the very day 
before it broke—and no one could admit that there was any defect in the 
tissue. He had resigned a good position as principal of the school be¬ 
cause “time is too valuable to waste in the school room at a hundred and 
fifty a month.” In spite of the entreaties of his wife to sell and put the 
money in something safe, he kept selling only to buy more on a margin 
that every day was becoming thinner. He could almost any day have 
sold all he had for $100,000 ; but to him, as to the majority, it seemed 
throwing property away to sell for any purpose except to re-invest.in a 
still larger draft on the golden future. 
^ ^ ^ ^ 
I 
I 
“ Did you sell anything today. Dumpy, dear? ” 
