THE PACIFIC OCEAN". 325 



It "was shot in the wing, and brought on board 

 alive, fighting savagely with its beak and feet. 

 With a view to preserving its plumage uninjured, I 

 endeavoured to destroy the bird by compressing its 

 windpipe; but found that as the breathing became 

 laborious, a load whistling sound was emitted from 

 some part of the body ; and upon close investigation 

 traced it to the bone of the wing, which was frac- 

 tured across, and projected through the skin, and 

 admitted within its tube a forcible current of air, 

 whenever the lungs made an effort at respiration : 

 the bird was, in fact, breathing through its broken 

 wing; and so sufficient was the supply of air the 

 lungs received through this novel channel, that I 

 was wearied by my attempts to suffocate my prize, 

 and was compelled to destroy it in another man- 

 ner."* 



Every one who has read the romantic narratives 

 of the old voyagers, is familiar with the name of 

 the Booby (Sula fusca), so named by seamen from 

 its apparent stupidity and familiarity, suffering itself 

 to be knocked down with a stick or taken with 

 the hand, when it alights, as it often does, on the 

 spars or shrouds of a vessel. This habit seems quite 

 unaccountable; many other birds have manifested 

 a similar fearlessness of man when first discovered, 

 but have soon learned the necessity of precaution: 

 but the Booby will manifest the same unnatural 

 tameness after being long accustomed to the cruelty 

 of man. It does not arise from helplessness, as it 

 is a bird of powerful wing, like its relative, the com- 



* Whaling Voyage, i. 260. 

 2E 



