Birds. 9183 
In a word, several, perhaps many, British forms are repeated (I do not 
say exactly, but to some degree) in Japan. If I am right, how can 
the fact be reconciled with the doctrine of the continuity of specific 
areas? Simply, I imagine, by similar conditions obtaining in localities 
so far apart; and the most obvious of these similar conditions I take 
to be the prevalence in both localities of an insular, as opposed to a 
continental, climate. Mr. Vernon Harcourt has already remarked that 
“all the birds of Madeira are darker than their European brethren ;” 
and I can of my own knowledge confirm his statement in several 
instances. The variation here observable is very much greater generally 
than in the case of British as distinguished from continental forms ; 
and Mr. Wollaston has pointed out the probability of variation being 
dependent on the length of the period through which isolation has 
lasted. It is, accordingly, well to examine the evidence afforded by 
Geology. Professor Edward Forbes supposed that the Madeiras and 
other Atlantic Islands were the summits of a Miocene continent ;* and 
Sir Charles Lyell has quite lately declared his belief that, “ waiving all 
such claims to antiquity, it is at least certain that, since the close of 
the newer Pliocene period, Madeira and Porto Santo have constituted 
two separate islands ;”+ while he further asserts that the naturalist is 
“entitled to assume the former union, within the post-pliocene period, 
of all the British Isles with each other and with the Continent.” ¢ It, 
therefore, appears to me that the differences of variation observable 
between the birds of the British islands and Madeira respectively and 
those of the Continent of Europe are exactly in accordance with these 
statements. 
The foregoing remarks I have made only in the hope of showing 
how much more remains to be done by the ornithologist in the 
Madeiras. I must now recount my own impressions, formed during 
my short stay of two days. On October 20th, 1862, I left Southampton, 
a passenger on board the Royal Mail steam-ship “Tamar.” We had 
a rough night of it gomg down channel, and the following morning 
found ourselves at anchor in Torbay, where our captain determined to 
wait till the spell of bad weather was over. How it rained, and how 
it blew, and how those on board managed to kill time, I need not here 
~say. The scenery of that beautiful bay, to me so familiar, was gene- 
rally obscured; but every now and then one obtained a glimpse of 
some well-known feature, bringing back lively and pleasurable remi- 
* ‘Geol. Survey of the United Kingdom,’ ” i. pp. 348—350, and p. 400. 
t ‘The Antiquity of Man, p, 444. t Ibid. p. 277. 
