150 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



Ireland, are every year visited by numbers of American birds, 

 brought by the westerly winds, no less than 60 or *70 species 

 having already been recorded ; while, as far as we can learn, 

 not one bird has ever been carried from Europe, in the oppo- 

 site direction, to America, there being good reason to believe 

 that the European stragglers, picked up from time to time in 

 our country, have reached us by way of Greenland. 



Mr. Godman's explanation of this anomaly is to the effect 

 that the Azores are in the region of storms from all points of 

 the compass, and that every year these storms bring birds 

 from Europe, and probably carry away an occasional Ameri- 

 can straggler. The enormous preponderance of species un- 

 distinguishable from those now inhabiting the Continent, and 

 the entire absence of native mammalia and reptiles, according 

 to our author, are conclusive proof that the fauna and flora 

 are not due to a former continental extension connecting the 

 islands with Europe. 



AYe have already referred to the peculiarity of the Madei- 

 ran beetle fauna in the existence of numerous wingless gene- 

 ra, and a similar condition appears to prevail in the Azores, 

 some of these insects being undistinguishable, even as species, 

 from their European allies, excepting in this characteristic. 

 A single species of beetle belongs to a genus peculiar to Mad- 

 agascar, and a single plant alone represents Africa in the 

 Azores, and it is suggested that both the beetle and plant 

 may have been carried thither by means of a floating log, 

 brought from the regions indicated. Attention is called bv 

 Mr. Godman to the difference between the Azores and the 

 Galapagos, where, at only half the distance from South Amer- 

 ica, the fauna is almost entirely peculiar. This is explained 

 by the suggestion that these latter islands are in a region of 

 calms instead of storms, and that the introductions have been, 

 therefore, of much rarer occurrence, and, when once establish- 

 ed in their isolation, have been more readily modified by ex- 

 ternal conditions. 13 A, May 15, 266. 



IiLYTII OX ZOOLOGICAL PROVINCES. 



Mr. Edward Blyth, a well-known naturalist of England, 

 has published in Nature a sketch of a new division of the 

 earth into zoological regions, differing somewhat from that of 

 Dr. Sclater and other writers upon this subject. The num- 



