They appear to have learnt caution more
slowly at these latter islands than at the Falklands, where
they have had proportionate means of experience; for besides
frequent visits from vessels, those islands have been at
intervals colonized during the entire period. Even formerly,
when all the birds were so tame, it was impossible by Pernety's
account to kill the black-necked swan - a bird of
passage, which probably brought with it the wisdom learnt
in foreign countries.
I may add that, according to Du Bois, all the birds at
Bourbon in 1571-72, with the exception of the flamingoes
and geese, were so extremely tame, that they could be caught
by the hand, or killed in any number with a stick. Again,
at Tristan d'Acunha in the Atlantic, Carmichael [6] states that
the only two land-birds, a thrush and a bunting, were "so
tame as to suffer themselves to be caught with a hand-net."
From these several facts we may, I think, conclude, first, that
the wildness of birds with regard to man, is a particular
instinct directed against _him_, and not dependent upon any
general degree of caution arising from other sources of
danger; secondly, that it is not acquired by individual birds
in a short time, even when much persecuted; but that in the
course of successive generations it becomes hereditary. With
domesticated animals we are accustomed to see new mental
habits or instincts acquired or rendered hereditary; but with
animals in a state of nature, it must always be most difficult
to discover instances of acquired hereditary knowledge. In
regard to the wildness of birds towards man, there is no way
of accounting for it, except as an inherited habit:
comparatively few young birds, in any one year, have been
injured by man in England, yet almost all, even nestlings, are
afraid of him; many individuals, on the other hand, both at the
Galapagos and at the Falklands, have been pursued and
injured by man, yet have not learned a salutary dread of
him. We may infer from these facts, what havoc the introduction
of any new beast of prey must cause in a country,
before the instincts of the indigenous inhabitants have
become adapted to the stranger's craft or power.
[1] The progress of research has shown that some of these birds,
which were then thought to be confined to the islands, occur on
the American continent. The eminent ornithologist, Mr. Sclater,
informs me that this is the case with the Strix punctatissima
and Pyrocephalus nanus; and probably with the Otus Galapagoensis
and Zenaida Galapagoensis: so that the number of endemic birds
is reduced to twenty-three, or probably to twenty-one. Mr.
Sclater thinks that one or two of these endemic forms should be
ranked rather as varieties than species, which always seemed to
me probable.
[2] This is stated by Dr. Gunther (Zoolog. Soc. Jan 24th,
1859) to be a peculiar species, not known to inhabit any other
country.
[3] Voyage aux Quatre Iles d'Afrique. With respect to the
Sandwich Islands, see Tyerman and Bennett's Journal, vol. i.
p. 434. For Mauritius, see Voyage par un Officier, etc.,
part i. p. 170. There are no frogs in the Canary Islands
(Webb et Berthelot, Hist. Nat. des Iles Canaries). I saw
none at St. Jago in the Cape de Verds. There are none at
St. Helena.
[4] Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., vol. xvi. p. 19.
[5] Voyage in the U. S. ship Essex, vol. i. p. 215.
[6] Linn. Trans., vol. xii. p. 496. The most anomalous fact on
this subject which I have met with is the wildness of the small
birds in the Arctic parts of North America (as described by
Richardson, Fauna Bor., vol. ii. p. 332), where they are said
never to be persecuted. This case is the more strange, because
it is asserted that some of the same species in their winter-
quarters in the United States are tame. There is much, as Dr.
Richardson well remarks, utterly inexplicable connected with the
different degrees of shyness and care with which birds conceal
their nests. How strange it is that the English wood-pigeon,
generally so wild a bird, should very frequently rear its young
in shrubberies close to houses!
CHAPTER XVIII
TAHITI AND NEW ZEALAND
Pass through the Low Archipelago - Tahiti - Aspect -
Vegetation on the Mountains - View of Eimeo - Excursion into
the Interior - Profound Ravines - Succession of Waterfalls -
Number of wild useful Plants - Temperance of the Inhabitants -
Their moral state - Parliament convened - New Zealand - Bay
of Islands - Hippahs - Excursion to Waimate - Missionary
Establishment - English Weeds now run wild - Waiomio -
Funeral of a New Zealand Woman - Sail for Australia.
OCTOBER 20th. - The survey of the Galapagos Archipelago
being concluded, we steered towards Tahiti
and commenced our long passage of 3200 miles. In
the course of a few days we sailed out of the gloomy and
clouded ocean-district which extends during the winter far
from the coast of South America. We then enjoyed bright
and clear weather, while running pleasantly along at the
rate of 150 or 160 miles a day before the steady trade-wind.
The temperature in this more central part of the Pacific is
higher than near the American shore. The thermometer in
the poop cabin, by night and day, ranged between 80 and
83 degs., which feels very pleasant; but with one degree or two
higher, the heat becomes oppressive. We passed through
the Low or Dangerous Archipelago, and saw several of
those most curious rings of coral land, just rising above the
water's edge, which have been called Lagoon Islands. A
long and brilliantly white beach is capped by a margin of
green vegetation; and the strip, looking either way, rapidly
narrows away in the distance, and sinks beneath the horizon
From the mast-head a wide expanse of smooth water can be
seen within the ring.
