THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 481 



isolated of the lagoon-islands would in time possess a far 

 more abundant Flora than they now have. 



The list of land animals is even poorer than that of the 

 plants. Some of the islets are inhabited by rats, which were 

 brought in a ship from the Mauritius, wrecked here. These 

 rats are considered by Mr. Waterhouse as identical with the 

 English kind, but they are smaller, and more brightly col- 

 oured. There are no true land-birds ; for a snipe and a rail 

 (Rallus Phillippensis), though living entirely in the dry 

 herbage, belong to the order of Waders. Birds of this order 

 are said to occur on several of the small low islands in the 

 Pacific. At Ascension, where there is no land-bird, a rail 

 (Porphyrio simplex) was shot near the summit of the moun- 

 tain, and it was evidently a solitary straggler. At Tristan 

 d'Acunha, where, according to Carmichael, there are only 

 two land-birds, there is a coot. From these facts I believe 

 that the waders, after the innumerable web-footed species, 

 are generally the first colonists of small isolated islands. I 

 may add, that whenever I noticed birds, not of oceanic 

 species, very far out at sea, they always belonged to this 

 order; and hence they would naturally become the earliest 

 colonists of any remote point of land. 



Of reptiles I saw only one small lizard. Of insects I took 

 pains to collect every kind. Exclusive of spiders, which were 

 numerous, there were thirteen species.* Of these, one only 

 was a beetle. A small ant swarmed by thousands under the 

 loose dry blocks of coral, and was the only true insect which 

 was abundant. Although the productions of the land are 

 thus scanty, if we look to the waters of the surrounding sea, 

 the number of organic beings is indeed infinite. Chamisso 

 has described 5 the natural history of a lagoon-island in the 

 Radack Archipelago; and it is remarkable how closely its 

 inhabitants, in number and kind, resemble those of Keeling 

 Island. There is one lizard and two waders, namely, a snipe 

 and curlew. Of plants there are nineteen species, including 

 a fern ; and some of these are the same with those growing 



*The thirteen species belong to the following orders: In the Coleop- 

 tera, a minute Elater ; Orthoptera, a Gryllus ana a Blatta ; Hemiptera, one 

 species; Homoptera, two; Nevroptera, a Chrysopa; Hymenoptera, two ants; 

 Lepidoptera nocturna, a Diopsea, and a Pteropiiorttt ( ?) ; Diptera, two species. 



6 Kotzebue's First Voyage, vol. iii. p. 222. 



VOL. XXIX P HC 



