for the same purpose. It would appear that the birds of this
archipelago, not having as yet learnt that man is a more dangerous
animal than the tortoise or the Amblyrhynchus, disregard him, in the
same manner as in England shy birds, such as magpies, disregard the
cows and horses grazing in our fields.
The Falkland Islands offer a second instance of birds with a similar
disposition. The extraordinary tameness of the little Opetiorhynchus
has been remarked by Pernety, Lesson, and other voyagers. It is not,
however, peculiar to that bird: the Polyborus, snipe, upland and
lowland goose, thrush, bunting, and even some true hawks, are all more
or less tame. As the birds are so tame there, where foxes, hawks, and
owls occur, we may infer that the absence of all rapacious animals at
the Galapagos, is not the cause of their tameness here. The upland
geese at the Falklands show, by the precaution they take in building on
the islets, that they are aware of their danger from the foxes; but
they are not by this rendered wild towards man. This tameness of the
birds, especially of the water-fowl, is strongly contrasted with the
habits of the same species in Tierra del Fuego, where for ages past
they have been persecuted by the wild inhabitants. In the Falklands,
the sportsman may sometimes kill more of the upland geese in one day
than he can carry home; whereas in Tierra del Fuego it is nearly as
difficult to kill one, as it is in England to shoot the common wild
goose.
In the time of Pernety (1763), all the birds there appear to have been
much tamer than at present; he states that the Opetiorhynchus would
almost perch on his finger; and that with a wand he killed ten in half
an hour. At that period the birds must have been about as tame as they
now are at the Galapagos. They appear to have learnt caution more
slowly at these latter islands than at the Falklands, where they have
had proportionate means of experience; for besides frequent visits from
vessels, those islands have been at intervals colonized during the
entire period. Even formerly, when all the birds were so tame, it was
impossible by Pernety's account to kill the black-necked swan--a bird
of passage, which probably brought with it the wisdom learnt in foreign
countries.
I may add that, according to Du Bois, all the birds at Bourbon in
1571-72, with the exception of the flamingoes and geese, were so
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