PERCH AND BONAVENTURE 129 
trations among hundreds that might be given. Cer- 
tain animals, therefore, are not only more abundant 
on islands, but, if their home be not shared by man, 
they exhibit a tameness surprising to one who has 
known only the timid, man-fearing creatures of the 
mainland. 
On several uninhabited West Indian islets the 
sailors of Columbus killed Pigeons and other birds 
with sticks, or caught them in their hands. Dar- 
win writes of the “extreme tameness” of the birds 
of the Galapagos, and tells of pushing a Hawk off 
its perch with the muzzle of his gun. Moseley, on 
Inaccessible and Kerguelen Islands, had similar ex- 
periences. 
The Albatrosses of the Laysan Islands show far 
less fear of man than do barnyard fowls—in short, 
if it were necessary, hundreds of instances might be 
cited to show that distrust of man is an acquired 
and not a natural trait of animals. 
Having these facts in mind, therefore, I be- 
thought me of some island or islands which were 
neither at the antipodes nor either pole, and where 
birds were not only abundant, but in such happy 
ignorance of man that no difficulty would be expe- 
rienced in securing their photographs. These would 
not only have a present interest and value, but would 
also form permanent records of conditions already 
threatened by the destructive tendencies of the age. 
After carefully considering all the more easily 
reached islets of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, my 
choice fell on certain of the bird rocks of the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence. The name bird rock is used in 
both a general and a special sense. In the former it 
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