110 MR. JOfTN HEWITT 



labourers on the Guano Islands to place these ticks in 

 the beds of new comers I 



In view of the American relationships of our penguin, 

 it is noteworthy that the ticks (Ornithodoros talaje 

 capensis) also have their nearest allies in the New 

 world, and are not directly derived from the abundant 

 tick fauna of the African mainland. The typical form 

 of Ornithodoros talaje is recorded from Venezuela, 

 Guatemala, New Granada, Mexico, Panama, Brazil and 

 Chili, Avliere it is reported to dwell in native Iiouses, 

 causing' c<msiderable annoyance to the inhabitants: at 

 Panama it specially infests rats. The Cape variety occurs 

 at St. Paul's Rock and on Siren Island (in the Indian 

 Ocean), and doubtfully also at Tristan da Cunha, but 

 the Jackass Penguin is not found in any of these locali- 

 ties. 



A satisfactorj' interpretation of these facts of distrf 

 bution seems to demand the hypothesis of a former 

 bridge of islands, or even a continuous land connection 

 between the great land masses of Africa and S. America : 

 that a connection did exist in the far remote Devonian 

 period is generally admitted by geologists, and Prof. 

 Schwarz who has designated the Devonian atlantis as 

 Flabellites-land in allusion to the characteristic fossil 

 Leptococlia ila'bellites, tells us that the fossils of the 

 Falkland Islands are such as might have been collected 

 at Ceres in Cape Colony: there is some evidence that 

 the ancient connection, dating long before the ages of 

 terrestrial vertebrates, may have persisted in attenuated 

 form right up to the beginning of the tertiary period, 

 the age of mammals and birds, but this is not so widely 

 accepted by geologists. 



In tlie same nests I found also several large ileas, 

 numerous Acarines, Stajihylinid l)eetles, and strangelv 

 enougli small cater])i]lars. These depraved caterpillars 

 must have fed cither on feathers or excrement. Their 



