DYING SAN NICOLAS. 
97 
devoted. Never more than a few feet apart at housekeeping 
time, the male and female evince an affection for each other 
beyond comparison. Their attitude toward birds not of their 
own species is kind and generous. We have seen a hummer 
attack a linnet for the cotton which she was carrying away to 
her nest. The linnet alighted on a bough, looked fondly at the 
tiny hummer, laid the cotton on a twig as much as to say 
“ You’re welcome ,’* and waited leisurely while the hummer 
filled her dainty beak and went off with it. Is there trouble 
anywhere in the grounds, a stray cat, an owl, or a young oriole 
hanging by one foot caught in the hairs of its nest lining, linnet 
tells the story and calls to the rescue. During incubation she 
sings almost constantly, in a low note, her faithful gray head just 
above the nest the picture of content, the thought evidently not 
occurring to her that she has already raised eight or ten chil¬ 
dren who may be waiting to coax her for patent baby food the 
moment she leaves the nest. Linnets are nurslings, being fed 
solely on regurgitated food. All through the nesting period, 
beginning before an egg is laid, the male so feeds his mate, the 
two sitting on tree twigs twittering together about the cares of 
parenthood. Altogether the linnet is a dear creature worthy of 
admiration by all who know him. 
Pasadena, Cal. 
Dying San Nicolas. 
BY BLANCHE TRASK. 
T is but an isle, nine miles long, about seventy-five miles out 
from Port Los Angeles ; the tops, it would seem, of sub¬ 
merged peaks. Narrow and lean, it yet stands firmly in 
the sea ; reef-bound and without a harbor. 
Day after day and week after week the battle endures. 
The snows of the sea chill yet deeper the heart of the 
black lava reefs ; a hopeless battle witnessed only by the 
shags, the gulls, the otters and the seals. 
Briny are the waters which steal silently through the 
sand-carved and wind-swept and sand-filled arroyos; 
now and then the little stream sinks quite away, and great 
canons hundreds of feet deep are really “snowed in” by 
the sand. 
All day long and all night long the wind and the sand are working 
away, building great castles, while gnomes and giants and dragons 
start up on every side. Even on the comparatively “level-top” of the 
island one must pass through gorge after gorge fantastically wind-and- 
sand carved. It is not unusual to be stopped by an erosion from 10 to 100 
feet in depth, when following the main ridge, and to have to go far out 
of your way to reach its head. 
Three miles from and extending to the west end, the “ Indian mounds ” 
are found—vast numbers, covered by thousands of red abalone shells, 
besides small shells innumerable ; snails, key-hole limpets, owl limpets, 
sea-urchins, frog-shells, spiral shells, sea cradles, the bones of the whale, 
otter, seal, and probably those of a dog and various other small animals 
and sea birds, besides human bones. 
