an expression of mischief which gives warning of danger. During a
visit to one of the farms, I saw a male bird pluck two hats from
unwary men, and it looked wicked enough to have taken their heads as
well, had they not been more securely fastened. It is sometimes
sarcastically asserted that the ostrich digests with satisfaction to
itself such articles as gimlets, nails, and penknives; but this is a
slander. It needs gravel, like all creatures of its class which have
to grind their food in an interior grist-mill; but though it will
usually bite at any bright object, it will not always swallow it. I
saw one peck at a ribbon on a lady's hat, and, also, at a pair of
shears in its keeper's hands, but this was no proof that it intended
to devour either. On another occasion, an ostrich snatched a purse
from a lady's hand and instantly dropped it; but when a gold piece
fell from it, the bird immediately swallowed that, showing how easily
even animals fall under the influence of Californian lust for gold.

[Illustration: AN OSTRICH FARM.]

[Illustration: ORANGE GROVE AVENUE, PASADENA.]

Sixteen miles from Los Angeles, yet owing to the clear atmosphere,
apparently, rising almost at the terminus of the city's streets,
stand the Sierra Madre Mountains, whose copious reservoirs furnish
this entire region with water. An excursion toward this noble range
brought me one day to Pasadena, the pride of all the towns which,
relatively to Los Angeles, resemble the satellites of a central sun.
Pasadena seems a garden without a weed; a city without a hovel; a
laughing, happy, prosperous, charming town, basking forever in the
sunshine, and lying at the feet of still, white mountain peaks, whose
cool breath moderates the semi-tropical heat of one of the most