18 WESTERN SERIES OF READERS. 



usually afraid, and to refuse to be tamed, even 

 when they are petted and fed for a long while. 



There was something very wonderful happened 

 to us a year ago. We were in the garden, talking 

 about the thrushes, and the phcebes, and the lin- 

 nets, when there came the whirr of wings, and a 

 mourning dove alighted in a pear tree close to 

 where we were standing. We looked at one 

 another in wonder, when the bird flew straight to 

 one of us and alighted on his shoulder. From 

 that day on, and for nearly a year, that mourning 

 dove was our household pet. It went in and out 

 on our heads or shoulders, slept on the picture- 

 frames or the curtain-poles, or on the cupboard 

 doors. It ate only bird-seed which the canary 

 left when it flew away, and a very few bread 

 crumbs. We knew it to be a female, because it 

 lacked the shining tints and velvety spots of the 

 male. 



It went away one day, but returned after sev- 

 eral weeks, and seemed glad to be back again. 

 We learned to love it very much. And strangers 

 wondered, when they came to see us. The first 

 thing a visitor would know, when seated, was a 

 flutter from the next room, and the dove alighted 

 on his or her hat. (This is the only bird on a 

 lady's hat which we have ever enjoyed looking at; 



