TAMENESS OF THE BIRDS. 173 



sufficiently near to be killed with a switch, and 

 sometimes, as I myself tried, with a cap or hat. A 

 gun is here almost supei-fluous ; for with the muz- 

 zle I pushed a hawk off the branch of a tree. One 

 day, whilst lying down, a mocking-thrush alighted 

 on the edge of a pitcher, made of the shell of a 

 tortoise, which I held in my hand, and began very 

 quietly to sip the water; it allowed me to lift it 

 from the ground whilst seated on the vessel : I 

 often tried, and very nearly succeeded, in catching 

 these birds by their legs. Formerly the birds ap- 

 pear to have been even tamer than at present. 

 Cowley (in the year 1684) says, that the " turtle- 

 doves were so tame, that they would often alight 

 upon our hats and arms, so as that we could take 

 them alive : they not fearing man, until such time 

 as some of our company did fire at them, whereby 

 they were rendered more shy." Dampier also, in 

 the same year, says that a man in a morning's walk 

 might kill six or seven dozen of these doves. At 

 present, although certainly very tame, they do not 

 alight on people's arms, nor do they suffer them- 

 selves to be killed in such large numbers. It is 

 surprising that they have not become wilder ; for 

 these islands during the last hundred and fifty years 

 have been frequently visited by bucaniers and wha- 

 lers ; and the sailors, wandering through the woods 

 in search of tortoises, always take cruel delight in 

 knocking down the little birds. 



These birds, although now still more persecuted, 

 do not readily become wild : in Charles Island, 

 which had then been colonized about six years, I 

 saw a boy sitting by a well with a switch in his 

 hand, with which he killed the doves and finches 

 as they came to drink. He had already procured 

 a little heap of them for his dinner ; and he said 

 that he had constantly been in the habit of waiting 

 P 2 



