STUPIDITY. 113 



walk into it and are hanged But the lesson is not 



learned by the (hanged) bird's neighbour.' Or, with a run- 

 ning noose at the end of a stick or long pole, the fowler 

 ' takes off each bird in order.' That sort of stupidity, there- 

 fore, which leads to easy capture by man, is not confined 

 to the birds of islands uninhabited or unvisited by him, 

 for St. Kilda is, and has long been, inhabited, while the 

 foolish or common guillemot frequents the coasts of Britain 

 itself. 



Moreover, such a kind of stupidity, real or apparent, is 

 not peculiar to seafowl nor to palmipeds. It is to be found 

 in a considerable variety of land birds of the most opposite 

 habits and natives of the most different countries. Thus the 

 flamingo is frequently easy of capture, making no attempt at 

 escape (Watson), the result simply of its ignorance that man 

 is an enemy to be avoided. 



The German Arctic Expedition of 1869-70 found linnets 

 and snow-buntings ' fearless and confiding,' seeming ' to like 

 the approach of man,' so that they ' almost perched upon 

 our noses, and in five minutes allowed themselves to be 



caught three times We were much amused by the 



confidence of the sand-pipers .... coming close to us,' all 

 in East Greenland. 



Baden Powell describes the fearlessness and unsuspicious- 

 ness of man that characterise the wood hen of New Zealand. 

 Numbers are caught alive in succession with the greatest 

 ease for instance, by offering to their view any glittering 

 metallic substance. They actually peck at it through the 

 noose prepared for their capture. They have as yet no con- 

 ception of the nature or object of traps or snares, or of false 

 calls. Nor, however, do they profit by observation or expe- 

 rience, for the cries and capture of their fellows have no 

 warning influence ; even the skinned corpse of one of their 

 companions does not act as a danger signal. All this hap- 

 pens in the more remote districts, where the bird is as yet 

 unaccustomed to man and his doings. 



It can scarcely be doubted that in the progress of settle- 

 ment, as the whole country becomes peopled by man, and as 

 the animal itself becomes the subject of his sport or perse- 



VOL. II. I 



