TAME BIRDS ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



GALAPAGOS ISLANDS. 



held in my baud, and began very quietly to sip the water; 

 it allowed me to lift it from the ground while 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- 



FLYING-FISII. 



selves to be killed in such large numbers. It is surprising 

 that they have not become wilder, for these islands durin^ 



