I30 



" in habits, gestures, and tones of voice. . . . The 

 " inhabitants of the Cape Verd islands are related to 

 " those of Africa, like those of the Galapagos to 

 "America; .... it is obvious that the Galapagos 

 " islands would be likely to receive colonists from 

 " America .... and the Cape Verd islands from 

 "Africa; such colonists would be liable to modifica- 

 " tion — the principle of inheritance still betraying 

 " their original birth place." * 



By the light of these general principles, and in- 

 deed particular instances, we must necessarily recog- 

 nize the claims of the Canary to trace its descent from 

 the primeval type, whatever it was, not in a direct line 

 through millions of years, but through the medium of 

 the Serin Finch during some much shorter period — to 

 be in short a comparatively recent offshoot from the 

 latter. The Serin is the member of the family, which 

 in addition to being an inhabitant of Southern Europe, 

 is peculiar to the North West portion of Africa, in- 

 cluding the littoral of Morocco, where it is exceedingly 

 common. And Morocco is the nearest part of the 

 mainland to what for our present purpose we may call 

 the Canary group of islands. Modifications from the 

 type of the Serin proper, evidently due to a new 

 environmental selection are found in the Canary 

 serin ; but so slight are they that while yet sufficient 

 for differentiation between the two, they do not 

 obscure the great and apparent affinity they have for 

 each other. This afiinity is the more striking when we 

 take the two birds and compare them with the rest of 

 the family : they are at once seen to present an aggre- 

 gate of similar characters which conclusively mark 

 them off from their relatives, while still proclaiming 

 the relationship. In other words the two are so alike 

 as to be manifestly much more closely related to each 

 other than either of them is to the remaining members 



• Origin of Species, 6th ed., pages 332 and 333. 



