extremely tame, that they could be caught by the hand, or killed in any
number with a stick. Again, at Tristan d'Acunha in the Atlantic,
Carmichael [6] states that the only two land-birds, a thrush and a
bunting, were "so tame as to suffer themselves to be caught with a
hand-net." From these several facts we may, I think, conclude, first,
that the wildness of birds with regard to man, is a particular instinct
directed against _him_, and not dependent upon any general degree of
caution arising from other sources of danger; secondly, that it is not
acquired by individual birds in a short time, even when much
persecuted; but that in the course of successive generations it becomes
hereditary. With domesticated animals we are accustomed to see new
mental habits or instincts acquired or rendered hereditary; but with
animals in a state of nature, it must always be most difficult to
discover instances of acquired hereditary knowledge. In regard to the
wildness of birds towards man, there is no way of accounting for it,
except as an inherited habit: comparatively few young birds, in any one
year, have been injured by man in England, yet almost all, even
nestlings, are afraid of him; many individuals, on the other hand, both
at the Galapagos and at the Falklands, have been pursued and injured by
man, yet have not learned a salutary dread of him. We may infer from
these facts, what havoc the introduction of any new beast of prey must
cause in a country, before the instincts of the indigenous inhabitants
have become adapted to the stranger's craft or power.
[1] The progress of research has shown that some of these birds, which
were then thought to be confined to the islands, occur on the American
continent. The eminent ornithologist, Mr. Sclater, informs me that
this is the case with the Strix punctatissima and Pyrocephalus nanus;
and probably with the Otus Galapagoensis and Zenaida Galapagoensis: so
that the number of endemic birds is reduced to twenty-three, or
probably to twenty-one. Mr. Sclater thinks that one or two of these
endemic forms should be ranked rather as varieties than species, which
always seemed to me probable.
[2] This is stated by Dr. Gunther (Zoolog. Soc. Jan 24th, 1859) to be a
peculiar species, not known to inhabit any other country.
[3] Voyage aux Quatre Iles d'Afrique. With respect to the Sandwich
Islands, see Tyerman and Bennett's Journal, vol. i. p. 434. For
Mauritius, see Voyage par un Officier, etc., part i. p. 170. There are
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