Again, at Tristan d'Acunha in the
Atlantic, Carmichael 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." (17/6. "Linnean Transactions" volume 12 page 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." volume 2 page
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!) 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.
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