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THE OSrREY. 



THE OSPREY. 



All Illuistrated Ma^^a/.ine of ropular Oniilhul 



I'libli'^hed Mouthly, 



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Vol. IV. 



FEBRUARY, lOOO. 



Comments. 



THP: OKIGIX of THK H.\WAII.\X FAUNA. 



Ill the Osprey for Jainiary we coii.sidered the 

 orig-in of the Bird Fatma of the Hawaiian 

 Islands in comparison with that of the other 

 Vertebrates. It was observed that the charac- 

 teristic element of the Avifauna appeared to 

 had been derived from American sources. The 

 same orig'in must be conceded for the sing'le 

 non-marine mammal — a bat. On the contrary, 

 all of the reptiles — seven species of lizards — are 

 conspecific with representatives of the farther 

 west or (in one case) closely related to such and 

 must have come in from the west — that is, from 

 the direction of Asia. 



Far more numerous in species and more char- 

 acteristic of the Hawaiian Archipelag'o are the 

 preponderant element of the land shell-bearing- 

 Gasteropods. A comparison of them with the 

 birds cannot fail to be of interest. 



The MoUtisks are represented among- inland 

 forms only by the class of Gasteropods, there 

 being no fresh water mussels or clams (Unioni- 

 dae and Corbiculidae). The Pulmoniferous Gas- 

 teropods, however, are represented by more than 

 four hundred species and considerably more than 

 three hundred of them belong to a peculiar group 

 which has been desig^nated as a family — Achati- 

 nellidae or Helicteridae althoug-h family or 



even common — characters have not been di.scov- 

 ered as yet. This g^roup with its numerous 

 species is peculiar to the islands and its nearest 

 relations appear to be with Polynesian forms to 

 the west. At any rate, there are no certainly 

 knozuji relatives on the American continent.s — 

 North or South. It may be, however, that certain 

 forms — for example the Lcpfi)iai-ice — of the West 

 Indies and middle America are related and a 

 most competent judg^e is inclined to believe that 

 such is the case. Nevertheless, more nearly 

 related forms are to be found in Polynesian 

 islands and the westward g-enerallv. 



In fact the question of the relationships of the 

 characteristic forms of the Hawaiian Islands is 

 still an open one and can only be positively 

 answered when they and other forms have been 

 subjected to a more critical and comparative 

 examination of anatomical minutije than has 

 been done. The question is further complicated 

 by the fact that there are two very distinct types 

 of ling-aal dentition manifest ainongf the forms 

 collected tog^ether under the denomination of 

 Achatinellidae. These types are so dissimilar 

 that, if the shells of the animals possessing- them 

 were not so similar to each other and found in 

 the same reg-ion, they wotild never have been 

 reg-arded as belong-ing- to related forms. 



The most noteworthy feature of the land 

 shells of the islands is the extraordinary numer- 

 ical development and the restriction of most 

 species to very limited areas. Fischer has given 

 the number as over 400. ("On a decrit plus de 

 400 especes"). The-se fig-ures are near enough 

 to the truth for ottr pi-esent ptirpose, especially 

 as no two conchologists would be able to come to 

 the same conclusions after independent studies. 

 Specific variation is often so extensive and 

 specific differences are often so slig-ht that it is 

 difficult in many cases to decide what are specific 

 characters and what variants of lesser value. 

 Knowledge of association and mode of occur- 

 rence of the forms might modify considerabU' 

 the conclusions based on examination of the 

 shells alone and would frequently, anyway, be 

 sug-gestive or throw light on subjects otherwise 

 obscure. 



The question, then, what is the orig'-in of the 

 Hawaiian land shell fauna is not only diliUcult to 

 answer in the present state of our knowledg^e^ 

 but is probably a complex one. It is scarcely 

 likely that any of the forms are the derivatives 

 of primitive types or from those that have existed 

 there much earlier than the tertiary period. It 

 is more probable that all are derivatives from 

 forms that liave drifted or been carried from 



