Stupidity ? 387 



bird's stupidity arises from the fact that when it 

 alights upon any portion of a ship, as it often does 

 in the vicinity of its home, it will sit still and allow 

 itself to be taken, although it has only to tumble off 

 its perch to be free and far out of the reach of the 

 marauding hand of the sailor. But there it sits, with 

 its full dark eye staring full at its enemy, apparently 

 h5T)notised into insensibility, and only when it is 

 grasped and its doom sealed does it begin to struggle 

 vainly to escape. Really the reason for this immobility 

 is fairly obvious, although I have never seen it stated. 

 Of all the sea-birds there are none that toil so tre- 

 mendously at their business of food-getting as the 

 gannets, and the Booby is no exception to the rule. 

 The big, somewhat ungainly bird, with his long straight 

 beak and his gawky wings flapping heavily and con- 

 tinuously, is, as I have said, a fairly well-known object 

 off our north-eastern coasts, and most observant 

 visitors have admired the wonderful way in which, 

 while flying in utmost haste along at a height of over 

 a hundred feet, he will suddenly fold his wings and 

 drop, beak first, with a tremendous splash into the 

 sea, emerging almost immediately after with a fish in 

 his beak, and literally fighting his way into the high 

 air again. 



Now, no other sea-bird, not even the lively gull, 

 or the ungainly cormorant, labours like this for its 

 living. The poor Booby oftentimes finds itself far 

 afield and quite weary, when a tempting opportunity 

 for a perch presents itself, of which it takes advantage, 

 and having done so, seems quite unable to exert itself 

 further for some time, even in the presence of the most 

 imminent danger of capture. Why it should prefer 

 the yards or booms of a vessel to rest upon to the sea 

 at such times is a thing I do not pretend to understand, 



