XX BIRDS— REPTILES 485 



appear to have not yet lost the capability of growing." It is 

 also said that palms and bamboos from somewhere in the torrid 

 zone, and trunks of northern firs, are washed on shore ; these 

 firs must have come from an immense distance. These facts 

 are highly interesting. It cannot be doubted that, if there 

 were land-birds to pick up the seeds when first cast on shore, 

 and a soil better adapted for their growth than the loose blocks 

 of coral, the most isolated of the lagoon islands would in time 

 possess a far more abundant Flora than they now have. 



The list of land animals is even poorer than that of the 

 plants. Some of the islets are inhabited by rats, which were 

 brought in a ship from the Mauritius, wrecked here. These rats 

 are considered by Mr. Waterhouse as identical with the English 

 kind, but they are smaller, and more brightly coloured. There 

 are no true land birds ; for a snipe and a rail (Rallus Philippensis), 

 though living entirely in the dry herbage, belong to the order 

 of Waders. Birds of this order are said to occur on several of 

 the small low islands in the Pacific. At Ascension, where there 

 is no land bird, a rail (Porphyrio simplex) was shot near the 

 summit of the mountain, and it was evidently a solitary 

 straggler. At Tristan d'Acunha, where, according to Carmichael, 

 there are only two land birds, there is a coot. From these facts 

 I believe that the waders, after the innumerable web -footed 

 species, are generally the first colonists of small isolated islands. 

 I may add, that whenever I noticed birds, not of oceanic species, 

 very far out at sea, they always belonged to this order ; and 

 hence they would naturally become the earliest colonists of any 

 remote point of land. 



Of reptiles I saw only one small lizard. Of insects I took 

 pains to collect every kind. Exclusive of spiders, which were 

 numerous, there were thirteen species.^ Of these one only was 

 a beetle. A small ant swarmed by thousands under the loose 

 dry blocks of coral, and was the only true insect which was 

 abundant. Although the productions of the land are thus 

 scanty, if we look to the waters of the surrounding sea the 

 number of organic beings is indeed infinite. Chamisso has 



' The thirteen species belong to the following orders : — In the Colcoptcra, a 

 minute Elater ; Orthoptera, a Gryllus and a Blatta ; Honiptera, one species ; 

 Homoptera, two ; Netiroptera, a Chrysopa ; Hymenoptera, two ants : I.epidoptera 

 twcturna, a Diopsea, and a Pterophorus (?) ; Diptera, two species. 



