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CHARLES DARWIN 



I will conclude my description of the natural history of 

 these islands, by giving an account of the extreme tameness 

 of the birds. 



This disposition is common to all the terrestrial species; 

 namely, to the mocking-thrushes, the finches, wrens, tyrant- 

 flycatchers, the dove, and carrion-buzzard. All of them are 

 often approached sufficiently near to be killed with a switch, 

 and sometimes, as I myself tried, with a cap or hat. A gun 

 is here almost superfluous; for with the muzzle I pushed a 

 hawk off the branch of a tree. One day, whilst lying down, 

 a mocking-thrush alighted on the edge of a pitcher, made of 

 the shell of a tortoise, which I held in my hand, and began 

 very quietly to sip the water; it allowed me to lift it from 

 the ground whilst seated on the vessel: I often tried, and 

 very nearly succeeded, in catching these birds by their legs. 

 Formerly the birds appear to have been even tamer than at 

 present. Cowley (in the year 1684) says that the "Turtle- 

 doves were so tame, that they would often alight on our hats 

 and arms, so as that we could take them alive ; they not fear- 

 ing man, until such time as some of our company did fire 

 them, whereby they were rendered more shy." Dampier 

 also, in the same year, says that a man in a morning's walk 

 might kill six or seven dozen of these doves. At present, 

 although certainly very tame, they do not alight on people's 

 arms, nor do they suffer themselves to be killed in such large 

 numbers. It is surprising that they have not become wilder ; 

 for these islands during the last hundred and fifty years have 

 been frequently visited by bucaniers and whalers; and the 

 sailors, wandering through the wood in search of tortoises, 

 always take cruel delight in knocking down the little birds. 



These birds, although now still more persecuted, do not 

 readily become wild. In Charles Island, which had then 

 been colonized about six years, I saw a boy sitting by a well 

 with a switch in his hand, with which he killed the doves 

 and finches as they came to drink. He had already procured 

 a little heap of them for his dinner ; and he said that he had 

 constantly been in the habit of waiting by this well for the 

 same purpose. It would appear that the birds of this archi- 

 pelago, not having as yet learnt that man is a more danger- 

 ous animal than the tortoise or the Amblyrhynchus, disregard 



