394 TAMENESS OF BIRDS. [chap/xvii. 



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 by 

 this well 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 

 Amhlyrhynchus, 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 Polyhorus^ 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 waterfowl, 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 colonised during the 

 entire period. Even formerly, when all the birds were so 

 tame, it was impossible by Pernety's account to kill the 



