268 On the Physical and Geographical Distribution 



the islands of the group have their peculiar species. Full 

 information on this most interesting subject will be found in 

 Mr Darwin's excellent Journal, kept during the Surveying 

 Voyages of H.M.S. Adventure and Beagle, vol. iii., p. 461, 

 and 473-478. Madagascar, the nearest part of which is only 

 about 250 miles distant from the coast of Africa, and extend- 

 ing about 1000 miles in a parallel direction, offers another 

 striking instance of an island not deriving its fauna from the 

 neighbouring continent. Of 113 known species of birds of 

 Madagascar, 68 are peculiar to it. The fullest information 

 on the subject of the ornithology of that island will be found 

 in a comprehensive essay, by Dr G. Hartlaub of Bremen, 

 published in the Annals of Natural History for Dec. 1848, 

 p. 383-396. For a knowledge of it, and its translation from 

 a German journal, the English reader is indebted to Mr H. 

 E. Strickland. 



It is interesting to observe how birds are affected by the 

 operations of man. I have remarked this, particularly at 

 one locality near Belfast, situated nearly 500 feet above the 

 sea, and backed by hills rising to 800 feet. Marshy ground, 

 the abode of little else than the snipe, became drained, and 

 that species was consequently expelled. As cultivation ad- 

 vanced, the numerous species of small birds attendant on it 

 became visitors, and plantations soon made themselves inha- 

 bitants of the place. The landrail soon haunted the mea- 

 dows, the quail and the partridge the fields of grain. A 

 pond, covering less than an acre of ground, tempted annually 

 for the first few years, a pair of the graceful and handsome 

 sandpipers {Totanus hypoleucos)^ which, with their brood, 

 appeared at the end of July or beginning of August, on their 

 way to the sea- side from their breeding haunt. This was in 

 a moor about a mile distant, where a pair annually bred, 

 until driven away, by drainage rendering it unsuitable. The 

 pond was supplied by streams descending from the moun- 

 tains, through wild and rocky glens, the favourite haunt of 

 the water-ouzel, which visited its margin daily throughout 

 the year. When the willows planted at the water's edge 

 had attained a goodly size, the splendid kingfisher occasion- 

 ally visited it during autumn. Rarely do the water-ouzel 



