them what you like," replied Adams; "I suppose they are
probably about as plenty in Australia as they are in California."

I fancied I could discover a sly smile lurking in the eye of the old
bear-hunter as he made this reply.

The pigeons were labeled as I suggested, and this is how it happened
that the Bridgeport non-believing lady, mentioned in the next chapter,
was so much attracted as to solicit some of their eggs in order to
perpetuate the species in old Connecticut.

Six or eight weeks after this incident, I was in the California
Menagerie, and noticed that the "Golden Pigeons" had assumed a
frightfully mottled appearance. Their feathers had grown out, and they
were half white. Adams had been so busy with his bears that he had not
noticed the change. I called him up to the pigeon cage, and remarked:

"Mr. Adams, I fear you will lose your Golden Pigeons; they must be very
sick; I observe they are turning quite pale!"

Adams looked at them a moment with astonishment; then turning to me, and
seeing that I could not suppress a smile, he indignantly exclaimed:

"Blast the Golden Pigeons! You had better take them back to the Museum.
You can't humbug me with your painted pigeons!"

This was too much, and "I laughed till I cried" to witness the mixed
look of astonishment and vexation which marked the "grizzly" features of
old Adams.

"These Golden Pigeons," I remarked, "are very common in California, I
think I heard you say? When do you expect my half-dozen pairs will
arrive?"

"You go to thunder, you old humbug!" replied Adams, as he marched off
indignantly, and soon disappeared behind the cages of his grizzly
bears.

From that time, Adams seemed to be more careful about telling his large
stories. Perhaps he was not cured altogether of his habit, but he took
particular pains when making marvelous statements to have them of such a
nature that they could not be disproved so easily as was that regarding
the "Golden California Pigeons."

CHAPTER VI.

THE WHALE, THE ANGEL FISH, AND THE GOLDEN PIGEON.

If the fact could be definitely determined, I think it would be
discovered that in this "wide awake" country there are more persons
humbugged by believing too little than too much. Many persons have such
a horror of being taken in, or such an elevated opinion of their own
acuteness, that they believe everything to be a sham, and in this way
are continually humbugging themselves.

Several years since, I