THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 225 



abounds, and has showy while flowers, and that a bignonia- 

 ceous shrub, with abundance of dark bhie flowers, was also 

 plentiful ; while a white-flowered liliaceous plant formed 

 large patches on the hill-sides. Besides these there were two 

 species of woody Composilaj with conspicuous heads of 

 yellow blossoms, and a species of white-flowered myrtle also 

 abundant; so that, on the whole, flowers formed a rather 

 conspicuous feature in the aspect of the vegetation of Juan 

 Fernandez. 



But this fact — which at first sight seems entirely at variance 

 with the view we are upholding of the important relation 

 between the distribution of insects and plants — is well 

 explained by the existence of two species of humming-birds 

 in Juan Fernandez, which, in their visits to these large and 

 showy flowers, fertilise them as eff'ectually as bees, moths, or 

 butterflies. Mr. Moseley informs me that " these humming- 

 birds are extraordinarily ahundanly every tree or bush 

 having one or two darting about it." He also observed that 

 " nearly all the specimens killed had the feathers round the 

 base of the bill and front of the head clogged and coloured 

 yellow with pollen." Here, then, we have the clue to the 

 ])erpetuation of large and showy flowers in Juan Fernandez ; 

 while the total absence of humming-birds in the Galapagos 

 may explain why no such large-flowered plants have been 

 able to establish themselves in those equatorial islands. 



This leads to the observation that many other groups of 

 birds also, no doubt, aid in the fertilisation of flowers. I have 

 often observed the beaks and faces of the brush-tongued 

 lories of the Moluccas covered with pollen; and Mr. Moseley 

 noted the same fact in a species of Artamus, or swallow- 

 shrike, shot at Cape York, showing that this genus also 

 frequents flowers and aids in their fertilisation. In the 

 Australian region we have the immense group of the 

 Meliphagidaj, which all frequent flowers; and, as these 

 range over the islands of the Pacific, their presence will 

 account for a certain proportion of showy flowers being 

 found there, such as the scarlet Metrosideros, — one of the few 

 conspicuous flowers in Tahiti. In the Sandwich Islands, too, 

 there are forests of Metrosideros ; and Mr. Charles Pickering 

 writes me that they are visited by honey-sucking birds, one 

 of which is captured by sweetened bird-lime, against which it 



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