80 



WHAT MR. DARWIN SAW. 



FALKLAND ISLANDS. 



WILD GOOSE. 



cult to kill one as it is in England to shoot the common 



wild goose. In the time of 

 Pernety (1763) all the birds 

 at the Falklands appear to 

 have been much tamer than" 

 at present, and about as tame 

 as they now are at the Gala- 

 pagos. Even formerly, when 

 all the birds were so tame, 

 it was impossible, by Perne- 

 ty's account, to kill the black- 

 necked swan a bird of pas- 

 sage, which probably brought 

 with it the wisdom learned in foreign countries. 



From these several facts we may, I think, conclude that 

 there is no way of accounting for the wildness of birds to- 

 ward man except as an 

 inherited habit. Com- 

 paratively few young 

 birds, in any one year, 

 have been injured by 

 man in England, yet al- 

 most all, even nestlings, 

 are afraid of him. On 

 the other hand, many 

 individual birds, both at 

 the Galapagos and at 

 the Falklands, have been 

 pursued and injured by 



THE OWL. 



