32 THE BIEDS OF THE FIJI ISLANDS. 



instances which bear out the dictum, and proceeds to say :—" Although some 

 of these are nearly allied to each other, they are nevertheless valid species, 

 which keep their distinctive characters always exact. At least, after a long 

 acquaintance with most of them, I can declare that I have never found 

 specimens which would lead to the belief that there exist intermediate forms 

 between them. It must be remarked as a singular fact that in those island 

 groups where two species occur, these are totally different and confined in 

 their distribution to certain localities. Thus in the Society Islands we find 

 Ptilonopus purpuratus only on Tahiti, Pt. chrysogaster on Huaheine. We must 

 further notice the total absence of Pigeons on the Sandwich Islands, and the 

 occurrence of very peculiar species on certain remote and isolated islands. 

 Thus Ghrysoena victor, Gould, is confined to Taviuni*, one of the smallest 

 islands of the Feejee group, whereas C luteovirens, H. & J., lives in Viti-Levou 

 and Ovalau, and now we learn that so small an island as Rapa produces one 

 of the most remarkable species of the genus. In considering all these points 

 we shall find it extremely difficult to explain what has caused such extra- 

 ordinary phenomena in geographical distribution ; and, to confess the truth, 

 we must allow that we are still far off from understanding these questions 

 satisfactorily, and that hypothesis only will serve us to answer them." 



Mr. Gould says of the Trochilidse :— " In the whole of my experience, 

 with the skins of many thousand Humming-birds passing through my hands, 

 I have never observed an instance of any variation which would lead me to 

 suppose that it was the result of the union of two species." 



With this statement regarding species in a very numerous family, coming 

 from an ornithologist of well-known authority, agrees Dr. Finsch's remark 

 that he never found specimens which w^ould lead to the belief that there 

 existed intermediate forms between them (i. e, the species of the Fruit-eating 

 Pigeons). The sayings of these two ornithologists on the subject are worthy 

 digestion. 



* [Mr. Layard now mentions others [cf, p. 31, also p. 36). — Editor of O. M.] 



