1835.] BIRDS. 365 



modified for different ends. In a like manner it might be fancied 

 that a bird originally a buzzard, had been induced here to under- 

 take the office of the carrion-feeding Polybori of the American 

 continent. 



Of waders and water-birds I was able to get only eleven kinds, 

 and of these only three (including a rail confined to the damp 

 summits of the islands) are new species. Considering the wander- 

 ing 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 archi- 

 pelago. 



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 Totauus, 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-fly- 

 catcher Avith 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. Water- 

 house informs me, there is nothing in their general appearance 



