4o6 GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO chap. 



the wandering habits of the gulls, I was surprised to find that 

 the species inhabiting these islands is peculiar, but allied to 

 one from the southern parts of South America. The far 

 greater peculiarity of the land-birds, namely, twenty-five out of 

 twenty-six being new species or at least new races, compared 

 with the waders and web-footed birds, is in accordance with 

 the greater range which these latter orders have in all parts of 

 the world. We shall hereafter see this law of aquatic forms, 

 whether marine or fresh water, being less peculiar at any given 

 point of the earth's surface than the terrestrial forms of the 

 same classes, strikingly illustrated in the shells, and in a lesser 

 degree in the insects of this archipelago. 



Two of the waders are rather smaller than the same species 

 brought from other places : the swallow is also smaller, though 

 it is doubtful whether or not it is distinct from its analogue. 

 The two owls, the two tyrant-flycatchers (Pyrocephalus) and 

 the dove, are also smaller than the analogous but distinct 

 species, to which they are most nearly related ; on the other 

 hand, the gull is rather larger. The two owls, the swallow, all 

 three species of mocking-thrush, the dove in its separate colours 

 though not in its whole plumage, the Totanus, and the gull, 

 are likewise duskier coloured than their analogous species ; 

 and in the case of the mocking-thrush and Totanus, than any 

 other species of the two genera. With the exception of a 

 wren with a fine yellow breast, and of a tyrant-flycatcher with 

 a scarlet tuft and breast, none of the birds are brilliantly 

 coloured, as might have been expected in an equatorial 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 

 general appearance which would have led him to imagine that 

 they had come from under the equator.^ The birds, plants, 



^ The progress of research has shown that some of these birds, whicli were then 

 thought to be confined to the islands, occur on the American continent. Tlie 

 eminent ornithologist, Mr. Sclater, informs me that this is the case with the Strix 

 punctatissima and Pyrocephalus nanus ; and probably with the Otus galapagoensis 

 and Zenaida galapagoensis : so that the number of endemic birds is reduced to 



