In the Falklands, the
sportsman may sometimes kill more of the upland geese in one day
than he can carry home; whereas in Tierra del Fuego it is nearly as
difficult to kill one as it is in England to shoot the common wild
goose.
In the time of Pernety (1763) all the birds there appear to have
been much tamer than at present; he states that the Opetiorhynchus
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 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 colonised 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.
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