INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1876. clxix 



have been, as has been the wont for a number of years, quite multi- 

 tudinous. Among them three may be especially enumerated on ac- 

 count of the interesting nature of the regions in question, as well as 

 in connection with a certain law of development which they sug- 

 gest : these are respectively a catalogue of the birds of the Galapa- 

 gos Archipelago, by Mr. Salvin ; a descriptive list of the species of 

 the Californian Guadelupe Islands, by Mr. Ridgway ; and an article 

 upon the parrots of the Mascarene Islands, by Professor Newton. 



Mr. Osbert Salvin, in his memoir " on the Avifauna of the Galapa- 

 gos Archipelago," adds much to the information previously possessed 

 of the birds of that remarkable group of islands. These islands are 

 about fifteen in number, and are clustered under the equator about 

 600 miles west of the coast of South America. They are remarkable 

 for the number of peculiar species ot birds. Fifty-seven are now 

 known from the different islands, thirty-eight of which are peculiar 

 to one or more of them, and only nineteen (and those mostly water- 

 birds, or species possessing great power of flight) have been found 

 elsewhere. These fifty-seven species represent thirty -nine genera, 

 of which five are peculiar to the islands, seven are common to them 

 and the contiguous coast of America, and the remaining twenty- 

 seven are types of wide distribution. The entire avifauna is a strik- 

 ing exemplification of the modifications concomitant with isolation 

 and peculiar conditions. 



Mr. Ridgway's article " on the Ornithology of Guadelupe Island " 

 was " based on notes and collections made by Dr. Edward Palmer." 

 The Guadelupe Island meant is situated between latitudes 28 45' 

 and 29 10' north, and is distant about 220 miles southwest from 

 San Diego. The species known are but few in number, only eleven 

 land-birds having been identified ; and of these only eight are known 

 from specimens. All of those thus known are either distinct specifi- 

 cally, or as varieties, although, as was of course to be expected, they 

 are congeneric with and near allies to species of the adjacent main- 

 land. 



The extent to which certain groups are developed under excep- 

 tional conditions, and their liability to extermination on the intru- 

 sion of extraneous agents, have been w^ell exemplified in the history 

 of the Mascarene Islands. These islands, including Mauritius, Re- 

 union, Rodriguez, and the Seychelles, were within the historical pe- 

 riod the abode of some remarkable birds, among which the Dodo 

 and the Solitaire were the most conspicuous. These were uncouth 

 small-winged birds which lived on the ground and attained a large 

 size, and this development was doubtless due to the absence of car- 

 nivorous mammals or other formidable enemies. The history of 

 their extermination is familiar to naturalists ; but it is not so well 

 known that other birds have undergone or are now approaching a 

 similar fate. Some of these were also imperfectly endowed with 



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