18.15.] REPTILES. 3S\ 



Ittg-thrush and To tan us, than any other species of the two genera 

 With the exception of a wren with a fine yellow breast, and of a 

 tyrant fly-catcher with a scarlet tuft and breast, none of the birds 

 are brilliantly coloured, as might have been expected in an equa- 

 torial district. Hence it would appear probable, that the same 

 causes which here make the immigrants of some species smaller 

 make most of the peculiar Galapageian species also smaller, as 

 well as very generally more dusky coloured. All the plants have a 

 wretched, weedy appearance, and I did not see one beautiful flower. 

 The insects, again, are small sized and dull coloured, and, as 

 Mr. Waterhouse informs me, there is nothing in their genera- 

 appearance which would have led him to imagine that they had 

 come from under the equator. The birds, plants, and insects 

 have a desert character, and are not more brilliantly coloured 

 than those from southern Patagonia ; we may, therefore, con- 

 clude that the usual gaudy colouring of the intertropical pro- 

 ductions, is not related either to the heat or light of those zones, 

 but to some other cause, perhaps to the conditions of existence 

 being generally favourable to life. 



"We will now turn to the order of reptiles, which gives the 

 most striking character to the zoology of these islands. The 

 species are not numerous, but the numbers of individuals of each 

 species are extraordinarily great. There is one small lizard 

 belonging to a South American genus, and two species (and 

 probably more) of the Amblyrhynchus — a genus confined to 

 the Galapagos islands. There is one snake which is numerous ; 

 it is identical, as I am informed by M. Bibron, with the Psam- 

 mophis Temminckii from Chile. Of sea-turtle I believe there 

 is more than one species ; and of tortoises there are, as we 

 shall presently show, two or three species or races. Of toads 

 and frogs there are none : I Mas surprised at this, considering 

 how well suited for them the temperate and damp upper woods 

 appeared to be. It recalled co my mind the remark made by 

 Bory St. Vincent,* namely, that none of this family are found on 



* Voyage aux Quatre lies d'Afrique. With respect to the Sandwich 

 Islands, sec Tyerman and Bennett's Journal, vol. i., p. 434. For Mauritius, 

 see Voyage par un Officier, &c, Part i., p. 170. There are no frogs in the 

 Canary Islands (Webb et Berthelot, Hist. Nat. des lies Canaries). I saw 

 none at St. Jago in the Cape de Verds, There are none at St. Helena. 



