18 EVOLUTION 



different islands and on the continent were 

 blood-relations with a common descent ? 

 Thus it was that in the Galapagos Archipelago 

 Darwin felt himself " brought near to the very 

 jict of creation." _ 



" My attention," Darwin writes, " was first 

 thoroughly aroused by comparing together the 

 numerous specimens, shot by myself and 

 several other parties on board, of mocking 

 thrushes, when, to my astonishment, I dis- 

 covered that all those from Charles Island 

 belonged to one species (Mimus trifasciatus); 

 all from Albemarle Island to M. parvulus; 

 and all from James and Chatham Islands 

 (between which two other islands are situ- 

 ated as connecting links) belonged to M. 

 melanotis." 



All subsequent investigations have con- 

 firmed Darwin's observations, both in their 

 general result and in details. Thus it has since 

 been shown by Ridgway that the thrushes 

 from James and Chatham Islands of the same 

 group are also of distinct species. And of one 

 hundred and twenty-eight specimens of a 

 lizard called Tropidurus collected by the 

 "Albatross" from eight of the islands, Dr. 

 Baur writes just as Darwin did : " I was not 

 a little astonished to find that nearly every 

 island contained a peculiar race or species of 



