THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 537 



clusively that this is not the case, and that they are allied 

 to the Ccerebidcc, a point of great interest, since the latter 

 are American. The leading featnres of Hawaiian orni- 

 thology were first pointed out by Professor A. Xewton 

 in Nature (I7th March, 1892), but are too technical to 

 need more than mention here. It may be stated, how- 

 ever, that various finches found on the group may possibly 

 own an Asiatic origin, and that Acrulocercus and Cliceto- 

 2')tila, and the Ehipidura-like Chasiempis, point certainly to 

 an Australian ancestry, although the three most numerous 

 families of that region — parrots, kingfishers, and pigeons 

 — are all wanting. 



The land mollusca of the Sandwich Islands are 

 described by Mr. A. H. Cooke as standing in marked 

 contrast to those of the other Polynesian groups, in the 

 possession of three entirely peculiar genera — Acliatindla, 

 Carelia, and Auriculclla. More than 300 of the former 

 genus have been described, every mountain valley on 

 some of the islands containing its own peculiar species. 

 Partula, so characteristic of all the other groups, is absent, 

 while the small land operculates, with the sole exception 

 of Helicina, are also wanting. The occurrence of one 

 of the Merope group of Rdix, otherwise known only from 

 the Solomon Islands, is most remarkable. On the other 

 hand, Patula, Microcystis, Tornatellina, and other small 

 pan-Polynesian land pulmonata are well represented, and 

 there is a rich development of Succinea. Among the 

 marine littoral mollusca occur two Purpura, one of which 

 is closely related to a troj)ical Mexican and the other to 

 a temperate Californian species. On the whole, the 

 molluscan fauna is unique in its peculiarities, both as 

 regards its indigenous element and also as regards the 

 apparently complicated relationships of the elements 

 which are not indigenous. 



