Formerly the birds appear to have been even tamer than at present.
Cowley (in the year 1684) says that the "Turtledoves were so tame,
that they would often alight on our hats and arms, so as that we
could take them alive: they not fearing man, until such time as
some of our company did fire at 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 colonised 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.
Pages:
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776