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May, 1911 LITERARY PRINCIPLES IN ORNITHOLOGICAL WRITING 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-looted 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 leathered 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, wandering with 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 wild 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 Wherei? a floor was made of tide-worn stones And bones of furred and tinned and leathered 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 Salpiiactian homes. NESTING HABITS OF THE WESTERN FLYCATCHER By HARRIET WILLIAMS MYERS 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 were 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(]?rnpidonax di2ffcilis) 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