Oct. 1835. 



TAMENESS OF BIRDS. 



477 



goose, thrush, Emberiza, and even some true hawks, are 

 all more or less tame. Both hawks and foxes are present ; 

 and as the birds are so tame, we may infer that the absence 

 of all rapacious animals at the Galapagos, is not the cause of 

 their tameness there. The geese at the Falklands, by the 

 precaution they take in building on the islets, show that 

 they are aware of their danger from the foxes ; but they are 

 not by this rendered wild towards man. This tameness of the 

 birds, especially the waterfowl, is strongly contrasted with 

 the habits of the same species in Tierra del Fuego, where 

 for ages past they have been persecuted by tlie wild inha- 

 bitants. In the Falklands, the sportsman may sometimes 

 kill more of the upland geese in one day, than he is able to 

 carry home ; whereas in Tierra del Fuego, it is nearly as 

 difficult to kill one, as it is in England of the common 

 wild species. 



In the time of Pernety* (1763), all the birds appear to 

 have been much tamer than at present. Pernety states that 

 the Furnarius would almost perch on his finger ; and that with 

 a wand he killed ten in half an hour. At that period, the 

 birds must have been about as tame as they now are at the 

 Galapagos. They appear to have learnt caution more 

 quickly at the Falklands than at the latter place, and they 

 have had proportionate means of experience; for besides 

 frequent visits from vessels, the islands have been at inter- 

 vals colonized during the whole period. 



Even formerly, when all the birds were so tame, by 

 Pernety^s account it was impossible to kill the black- 

 necked swan. It is rather an interesting fact, that this is a 

 bird of passage, and therefore brings with it the wisdom 

 learnt in foreign countries. 



I have not met with any account of the land birds being so 

 tame, in any other quarter of the world, as at the Galapagos 

 and Falkland Islands. And it may be observed that of the 

 few archipelagoes of any size, which when discovered were 



* Pernety, \^oyage aux lies Malouines, vol. ii., p. 20. 



