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Ch. XLL] 



EEFEREXCE TO THE ORIGIN OE SPECIES. 



413 



stroyed by tlie saltwater^ as has been ascertained by experi- 

 ment, and it is not of a natnre to adhere to tlie feet of birds, 

 as Mr. Darwin has fonnd by observation. 



A strong current which flows from the north, and passes 



m 



Mammalia 



ing even the Canaries, one of which, Fnertaventura, is now 

 only fifty miles from Africa, though possibly it was 

 distant when the Sahara was still under water. The 



may 



from 



was more 

 The same 

 drifted to 



Madeir 



human 



ever landed 



until the year 1419. Madeira now supports a population 

 of about 80,000 souls, and when we consider the great beauty 

 and fertility of the island, and that it has existed ever since 

 the Miocene epoch, we are not merely called upon to explain 

 the absence of inferior animals, but why, if we adopt the 

 theory of special creation, no race of mankind was formed 

 expressly to inhabit such a paradise. 



Birds. — For the same reason that bats, being provided with 

 wings, form an exception to the general rule of the absence 



Mammalia 



m 



expect that 



the feathered race would, of all classes of Yertebrata, be 



most fully 

 be the ca 



Accordingly we not only find this to 



significant, as bearinp- 



more 



transmutation 



Atlantic islands are absolutely identical in species with 

 those of the nearest mainland. Thus in the Canaries and 

 Madeiras, all the species except three or four are European. 

 Of the 99 Madeiran species, there is only one peculiar to thai, 

 island, and it is closely related to a Euronean 



form : the 



common 



In the Azores, there are only two peculiar species, out of 

 51, and these two, a chafiinch and a bullfinch, are closely 

 allied to European and North African birds."^' 



We learn from Mr. Du Cane Godman, as before cited (p. 365), 

 that every wdnter some birds are driven by violent gales over 



England to the Azores. The same 



Irom 



* Ibis, vol. ii. 1866, new series. 



