194 REPORT — 1844. 



(Oken's ' Isis,' 1832,) and Lesson (Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 2, vol. ix.). Not a 

 few of the nominal species in Latham's ' Index Ornithologicus ' are said to 

 be from Mexico, some of which, taken from the original work of Hernandez, 

 might doubtless be regained to science ; others, described from the worthless 

 'Thesaurus' of Seba, are probably altogether apocryphal. 



The voyage of Capt. Cook supplied the earliest materials for the zoology 

 of north-western America. A few Rasorial birds were brought from that 

 country by the botanist Douglas, and others are described by Mr. Vigors in 

 the ' Zoology of Capt. Beechey's Voyage,' 1839. We may regret that no 

 note was taken of the localities of many species brought home by that expe- 

 dition, and which are described and figured with exactness in the above work. 

 M. Lichtenstein's memoir in the ' Berlin Transactions,' 1838, and the recently 

 published ' Zoology of the Voyage of the Sulphur,' have also furnished some 

 additions to the ornithology of that remote part of the American continent, 

 and twelve species from the Columbia river are described by Mr. Townsend 

 in the 'Journ. Acad. Sc.,' Philadelphia, 1837. 



Mr. J. P. Giraud has described several new species of birds from Texas in 

 the 'Annals of the Lyceum of New York,' of which he has given coloured 

 figures in a folio form, under the title of ' Description of Sixteen New Species 

 of North American Birds,' New York, IS^l. 



Central America. — Of this region of tropical forests (in which Honduras 

 and Yucatan may be geographically included) the zoology is almost unknown. 

 Two or three beautiful birds from that country have found their way into 

 Temminck's ' Planches Coloriees,' a few more are described by M. Lesson in 

 the ' Revue Zoologique,' 184-2, and Dr. Cabot, an American naturalist who 

 accompanied Mr. Stephens in his interesting expedition in Yucatan, has enu- 

 merated some of the birds which he collected, in the work of the latter gen- 

 tleman (Incidents of Travel in Yucatan). He considers many of them to 

 be identical with species of the United States, but it is not stated how far this 

 identification rests on a rigorous comparison of specimens from the two coun- 

 tries. Dr. Cabot has given an interesting account of the habits of that beau- 

 ful bird the Meleagris ocellata in the ' Boston Journal of Natural History,' 

 and the habits of Trogon pavoninus, another splendid bird of that country, 

 are recorded by M. Delattre in the ' Revue Zoologique,' 1843. 



Gakqiagos Islaiids. — This small group of islands illustrates that remark- 

 able law which establishes a general coincidence between geographical dis- 

 tribution and zoological affinity. These islands of the Pacific, though several 

 hundred miles distant from the American coast, are yet much nearer to it 

 than to the numerous islands of the Polynesian archipelago, and in confor- 

 mity with this position we find that the birds of the Galapagos, though be- 

 longing to species exclusively confined to these isles, are altogether refer- 

 able to an American and not to a Polynesian type of organization. This 

 result is derived from the researches of Mr. Darwin, who, in the ' Zoology of 

 the Voyage of the Beagle,' has described several new species from these re- 

 mote islands. 



West Indies. — The ornithology, and I may say the natural history of the 

 West Indies, is far less known than from the long connection of those islands 

 with Europe might have been expected. Of the birds of Cuba a few were 

 described by Mr. Vigors in the ' Zoological Journal,' vol. iii. This island has 

 since been scientifically surveyed by Ramon de la Sagra in his ' Histoire 

 Physique, Politique et Naturelle de I'Isle de Cuba,' in which a considerable 

 number of new species of birds are accurately characterized. Many of the 

 birds of St. Domingo were long since described by Brisson, Buffon and 

 Vieillot, and few if any additions to our knowledge of its productions have 



