1835.] TAMENESS OF BIRDS. 393 



and rocky islands ; and still more so at its diverse yet 

 analogous action on points so near each other. I have 

 said that the Galapagos Archipelago might be called a 

 satellite attached to America, but it should rather be called 

 a group of satellites, physically similar, organically distinct, 

 yet intimately related to each other, and all related in a 

 marked, though much lesser degree, to the great American 

 continent. 



I will conclude my description of the natural history 

 of these islands, by giving an account of the extreme 

 tameness of the birds. 



This disposition is common to all the terrestrial species ; 

 namely, to the mocking-thrushes, the finches, wrens, 

 tyrant fly-catchers, the dove, and carrion-buzzard. All 

 of them often approached sufficiently near to be killed 

 with a switch, and sometimes, as I myself tried, with a 

 cap or hat. A gun is here almost superfluous ; for with 

 the muzzle 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 appear 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 buccaneers and whalers ; and the sailors wandering 

 through the woods in search of tortoises, always take 

 cruel delight in knocking down thi; little birds. 



These 'birds, although now still more persecuted, do not 

 ifUly become wild: in Charles Isl.md, which had then 

 n colonised about six years, 1 saw a boy silting by 



