Reviewing the facts here given,
one is astonished at the amount of creative force, if such an
expression may be used, displayed on these small, barren, and rocky
islands; and still more so, at its diverse yet analogous action on
points so near each other. I have said that the Galapagos
Archipelago might be called a satellite attached to America, but it
should rather be called a group of satellites, physically similar,
organically distinct, yet intimately related to each other, and all
related in a marked though much lesser degree, to the great
American continent.
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 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.
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