THE INVITATION. 249 



Dominick was discovered, about eighteen days after- 

 ward, she was brisk and lively, but fearfully pinched 

 ap, and as light as a bunch of feathers. The slight- 

 est wind carried her before it. But by judicious 

 feeding she was soon restored. 



The circumstance of the bluebirds being embold- 

 ened by the cold, suggests the fact that the fear of 

 man, which now seems like an instinct in the birds, 

 6 evidently an acquired trait, and foreign to them in 

 a state of primitive nature. Every gunner has ob- 

 served, to his chagrin, how wild the pigeons become 

 after a few days of firing among them ; and, to his 

 delight, how easy it is to approach near his game in 

 new or unfrequented woods. Professor Baird tells 

 me that a correspondent of theirs visited a small 

 island in the Pacific Ocean, situated abooit two hun- 

 dred miles off Cape St. Lucas, to procure specimens. 

 The island was but a few miles in extent, and had 

 probably never been visited half, a dozen times by 

 human beings. The naturalist found the birds and 

 water-fowls so tame that it was but a waste of am- 

 munition to shoot them. Fixing a noose on the end 

 of a long stick, he captured them by putting it over 

 their necks and hauling them to him. In some cases 

 not even this contrivance was needed. A species ol 

 mocking-bird, in particular, larger than ours, and a 

 splendid songster, made itself so familiar as to be al- 

 most a nuisance, hopping on the table where the col- 

 lator was writing, and scattering the pens and paper. 

 Eighteen species were found, tweh'^e of them peculiai 

 U) the island. 



