THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 225 
abounds, and has showy white flowers, and that a bignonia- 
ceous shrub, with abundance of dark blue flowers, was also 
plentiful; while a white-flowered liliaceous plant formed 
large patches on the hill-sides. Besides these there were two 
species of woody Composite with conspicuous heads of 
yellow blossoms, and a species of white-flowered myrtle also 
abundant; so that, on the whole, flowers formed a rather 
conspicuous feature in the aspect of the vegetation of Juan 
Fernandez. 
But this fact—which at first sight seems entirely at variance 
with the view we are upholding of the important relation 
between the distribution of insects and plants—is well 
explained by the existence of two species of humming-birds 
in Juan Fernandez, which, in their visits to these large and 
showy flowers, fertilise them as effectually as bees, moths, or 
butterflies. Mr. Moseley informs me that “these humming- 
birds are extraordinarily abundant, every tree or bush 
having one or two darting about it.” He also observed that 
“nearly all the specimens killed had the feathers round the 
base of the bill and front of the head clogged and coloured 
yellow with pollen.” Here, then, we have the clue to the 
perpetuation of large and showy flowers in Juan Fernandez ; 
while the total absence of humming-birds in the Galapagos 
may explain why no such large-flowered plants have been 
able to establish themselves in those equatorial islands. 
This leads to the observation that many other groups of 
birds also, no doubt, aid in the fertilisation of flowers. I have 
often observed the beaks and faces of the brush-tongued 
lories of the Moluccas covered with pollen; and Mr. Moseley 
noted the same fact in a species of Artamus, or swallow- 
shrike, shot at Cape York, showing that this genus also 
frequents flowers and aids in their fertilisation. In the 
Australian region we have the immense group of the 
Meliphagide, which all frequent flowers; and, as these 
range over the islands of the Pacific, their presence will 
account for a certain proportion of showy flowers being 
found there, such as the scarlet Metrosideros,—one of the few 
conspicuous flowers in Tahiti. In the Sandwich Islands, too, 
there are forests of Metrosideros; and Mr, Charles Pickering 
writes me that they are visited by honey-sucking birds, one 
of which is captured by sweetened bird-lime, against which it 
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