2 3° THE INVITATION. 



to say that he would waste his time in recommending 

 his cigars to me, as I never smoked, when he said 

 that, hearing I knew something about birds, he had 

 brought me one which had been picked up a few hours 

 before in a hay field near the village, and which was 

 a stranger to all who had seen it. As he began to 

 undo the box I expected to see some of our own rarer 

 birds, perhaps the rose-breasted grossbeak or Bohemian 

 chatterer. Imagine, then, how I was taken aback, 

 when I beheld instead, a swallow-shaped bird, quite 

 as large as a pigeon, with forked tail, glossy-black above 

 and snow-white beneath. Its parti-webbed feet, and its 

 long graceful wings, at a glance told that it was a sea- 

 bird ; but as to its name or habitat I must defer my 

 answer till I could get a peep into Audubon, or some 

 large collection. 



The bird had fallen down exhausted in a meadow, 

 and was picked up just as the life was leaving its body. 

 The place must have been one hundred and fifty 

 miles from the sea, as the bird flies. As it was the 

 sooty-tern, which inhabits the Florida Keys, its ap- 

 pearance so far North and so far inland, may be consid- 

 ered somewhat remarkable. On removing the skin I 

 found it terribly emaciated. It had no doubt starved 

 to death, ruined by too much wing. Another Icarus. 

 Its great power of flight had made it bold and ven- 

 turesome, and had carried it so far out of its range that 

 it starved before it could return. 



