1920.] Birrh of the Canary Islands. 537 



Before these p;ig-es are in pi'iiit 1 .sliall, I Iiopc^, have 

 visited (louieia and Hicn-o in person, and shall take 

 special note of the vegetation zones which in the last two 

 islands, at any rate, appear to he little known ; (Joniera, 

 I understand, somewhat resend)les Paluia in its vegetation — 

 the high ground heing clothed with forests. Ilierro, on the 

 other hand, is much less wooded, hut the vegetation zones of 

 these two islands require to he more carefully studied before 

 we can say to what extent the indigenous birds have been 

 affected by the local conditions. To this I shall pay par- 

 ticular attention during my forthcoming trip ■^. 



Factors influencing the character of the native iiora are 

 summed up by Salter under tiiree headings: (1) long isola- 

 tion, (2) volcanic origin, (3) climate. It is particularly 

 interesting to the ornithologist to learn that, as pointed 

 out l)y Hooker many years ago, the Caiiarian flora is more 

 nearly allied to Mediterranean spcincs than to Moroccan 

 forms, and that from this J'jUgler considered the flora of the 

 islands in all probability to be a survival of the flora of the 

 Tertiary [)eriod — more tropical in character than that which 

 belongs to Noi'th Africa and the Mediterranean llegion at 

 the present time. According to Sauci', out of a total of 

 1250 Canariau ])lants, 333 are endemic. If a fresh census 

 were taken now, I believe both the number of Canarian 

 plants and of the endemic forms could, be greatly increased. 



Tui-ning once more to the birds, ornithologists have often 

 marvelled that the Canaries are inhabited by such a remark- 

 able number of good geographical subspecies, and 1 have on 

 several occasions been asked to explain the reason. 



Knowing the islands as I do, I feel that this can never 

 be accomplished satisfactorily until some knowledge of the 

 widely did'cring types of country which arc to be found in 

 the (iroup — often, indeed, in the same island — has been 

 acquired. 1 therefore nuikc no apology for having attempted 

 to place the reader in possession of some, at any rate, of the 

 all-important physical conditions existing in the islands, 



* The writer succeeded in riding across and partly exploring Gomera 

 in March of tliis year, but was unable to visit Ilierro. 



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