808 THE OCEAN. 



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 manner."* 



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 common Gannet ; 

 neither is it a sufficient explanation to affirm, as is 

 sometimes done, that it arises from a peculiar difficulty 

 in rising to flight after alighting, because it is not 

 unfrequently caught in the air by the hand ; so 

 incautiously does it approach man. Notwithstanding 

 this apparent stupidity, the Booby is a dexterous 



* Wh-ilins Voyage, i. 260. 



