ZOOLOGY OF GALAPAGOS ISLANDS. 163 



plete accordingly.* The entire harmony of this 

 fact does, I must confess, strike my mind forcibly. 

 Had there been mammals and no reptiles, it would 

 have been quite different. We should then have 

 said, that one decided fact against the develop- 

 ment theory had been ascertained. A minor cir- 

 cumstance in the zoology of these islands is 

 worthy of note. The swimming and wading birds 

 are less diverse from those of the rest of the world 

 than the terrestrial species, all of which, but one, 



* In the Vestiges, Australia is spoken of, for the same reason, 

 as apparently a new country, one which has been belated in its 

 physical and organic development. We have there an order, or 

 what is called an order, of mammals, namely, the marsupialia, 

 besides a few monotremata ; all of which may be regarded as 

 only mammalian apices of certain bird families. The placental 

 mammal.a are wholly wanting. One might suppose that the 

 reasoning on whioh the comparative recentne^s of this continent 

 Ivas inferred would have been readily intelligible, and that not 

 leren the most ingenious perverseness of opposition could have 

 llumg a remark upon it. Yet the Edinburgh reviewer presents 

 a note (p. 58), stating that, on my own scheme of nature, New 

 Holland ought to have been considered as one of the oldest 

 countries. " He might have argued (from its flora, its cestra- 

 ceonts, its trigonise, and its marsupials) that it was as old as our 

 oolites ; but this would not have served the good ends of the 

 scheme of development. An amusing example of inconsistency." 

 By old, I presume, is here meant duration in the condition of dry 

 land. I thoroughly agree with the Westminster Review, when 

 it says of this passage, " A more complete miscomprehension of 



