Boobies, Noddies, and Charles Darwin

I like books about men on ships. I think you know what I'm talking about. One such book is Journal of Researches, by the hilarious Charles Darwin. Nobody describes a beetle or fungi with more gusto. The book is a collection of his journal entries that he made while on the historic voyage aboard the HMS Beagle around 1830. Why, already, on page 21, while on the island of St. Paul's of the Cape Verd Islands, he finds the only two kinds of birds on the island; the booby and the noddy. I'm writing to share this quote with you:

"Both are of a tame and stupid disposition, and are so unaccustomed to visitors that I could have killed any number of them with my geological hammer."

Something about the image of a young Darwin out on some remote island, the Beagle perhaps bobbing at anchor somewhere behind him, sitting on a rock, and picturing himself braining boobies with his hammer, strikes me as funny. And really, it's a pretty good joke for a naturalist spending most of his time chasing after bugs in 1831.