388 Boobies and Penguins 



but the fact is that it does do so in preference to resting 

 on the water ; a thing I never remember to have seen 

 one doing. 



There is perhaps another and more convincing 

 reason for the Booby's apparent stupidity. The lonely 

 islets and cays which it frequents are seldom visited 

 by man. Being naturally of a confiding nature, and 

 getting little opportunity of learning how unsafe it is 

 to place any confidence in the lords of creation, it is 

 unprepared for the danger of capture which attends 

 it upon alighting upon any place to which he has 

 convenient access. And why sailors should take the 

 poor birds I do not know, except that the temptation 

 to lay hold upon a bird that is unable or unwilling to 

 fly away is almost irresistible to most men. For the 

 Booby, like all sea-birds, is anything but good eating, 

 being rank, tough, and oily ; while as a pet he is of no 

 use at all. And I am ashamed to say that all I have 

 ever seen taken on board ship were presently, after a 

 period of maltreatment, flung overboard, a piece of 

 cruel waste for which there can be no possible excuse. 



My first acquaintance with the Booby dates back 

 to my first voyage, as a small boy in my twelfth year. 

 Of course, I do not know the exact part of the sea in 

 which we were cruising, but I know that we were at no 

 very great distance from land, for we were sailing — ^not 

 steaming — from Demerara to Santa Ana in the Mexican 

 Gulf. And one night, being becalmed, one of the men 

 pointed out to me a dark object on the cat-head clearly 

 outlined against the moonbeams on the sea. I don't 

 know why, but in those days any item of information 

 conveyed to me in a whisper with an air of mystery 

 always made my heart pump furiously ; and my feeling, 

 though perhaps not exactly fear, was not at all pleasant 

 as Joe stole away from my side towards that dark 



