THE PIKEXIX AND OTHER ISLANDS 525 



even fourteen months, and the Marquesan cultivates 

 little beyond his taro. In the island of Hiva-oa there is 

 another French official, but the progress made towards 

 civilising the natives is not very great. 



The Marquesas and Society Islands being the most 

 easterly groups of non-coralline islands in the Pacific, it 

 is interesting to notice the extreme poverty of their 

 animal life. Indigenous terrestrial mammals are quite 

 unknown ; neither are there any snakes, and only one 

 lizard. Birds are much less ninnerous than in the more 

 western islands, no less than twenty-five genera of the 

 Fiji and Samoan groups being wanting, and there is only 

 one new form to supply their place ^ — a peculiar fruit- 

 pigeon (Serresiics galeatiis), which inhabits the western 

 part of Nukahiva. Insects, also, are extremely scarce. 

 This striking diminution of the forms of life indicates 

 that the islands have been peopled by emigration from 

 the west, and do not contain the relics of an ancient con- 

 tinental fauna, as is sometimes supposed ; for in that case 

 there would be no reason why the number of genera and 

 species of birds, reptiles, and insects should regularly 

 decrease from west to east as they undoubtedly do. 



11. Manahiki, Phoenix, and other Islands. 



North of the Society group lie several widely scattered 

 islets very seldom visited, several of which have been 

 annexed by Great Britain. Caroline or Thornton Island, 

 Manahiki, Penrhyn or Tongarewa, and perhaps Suwarrow, 

 may be regarded as forming the Manahiki — or, as it is 

 by some called, the Penrhyn — group. North of these 

 are Starbuck and Maiden, both of which are British. 

 Crossing the Equator, we come to another set of islets, 

 lying between lat. 2° and 7° N. Finally, north of the 



