THE INVITATION. 249 



Dominick was discovered, about eighteen days after- 

 ward, she was brisk and lively, but fearfully pinched 

 op, 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, 

 is 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 about 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 of 

 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- 

 -ector was writing, and scattering the pens and paper. 

 Eighteen species were found, twelve of them peculiar 

 *o the island. 



