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 loud 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 
