114 STUPIDITY. 



cution, it will acquire greater general intelligence, including 

 the development of special caution where man or his traps or 

 snares are concerned. It will learn by experience to associ- 

 ate nooses or other traps with capture, and capture with 

 danger to life ; it will recognise man as its most dangerous 

 and treacherous enemy ; will distinguish his false or imitated 

 call-notes from the real notes of its own fellows ; will exercise 

 more carefully its senses of vision and hearing, its observa- 

 tive and reflective faculties ; will, in short, duly profit by the 

 lessons which only experience can teach. A similarly strik- 

 ing change of character and habits has already taken place 

 in other New Zealand birds since, and in consequence of, the 

 advent of the European settlers within the last half-century 

 (Buller, Potts). 



Another New Zealand bird the native pigeon is de- 

 scribed as c the most stupid bird in existence, and never 

 seems to be much frightened at the discharge of a gun, so 

 long as it cannot see who fired it 5 (Tinne). A third New 

 Zealand bird, now extinct however, is said to have been 

 ' most stupid and sluggish.' Moas ' would quietly allow 

 themselves to be roasted alive without moving,' in the grass 

 and scrub fired by the Maoris for their capture. The Maoris, 

 indeed, have a proverb e Inert as a Moa' (Judge Man- 

 ning). 



The geese of Anticosti deserve their name (of geese), says 

 Rowan, on account of their stupidity. They are described 

 as inquisitive, and no doubt in them, as in so many other 

 animals, curiosity, associated with inexperience, is apt to 

 lead to fatal confidence in, or fearlessness of, man. As in 

 the case also of the Australian goose, they are thus probably 

 tame in the wild state from unfamiliarity with man, and so 

 are too easy of capture to the real sportsman, who values his 

 game very much according to the kind and amount of trouble 

 he has had in stalking it. According to Gillmore, certain 

 wild geese in North America sometimes showed themselves 

 ' totally devoid of fear, either of the report of my gun or of 

 my presence, and flew frequently within fifteen or twenty 

 yards, in the most leisurely and business-like manner,' to 

 their own destruction. 



