250 ISLAND LIFE part ii 



7. Gold-crest 



8. Wheatear 



9. Grey Wagtail 



10. Atlantic Chaffinch 



11. Azorean Bullfinch 



12. Canary- 

 is. Common Starling 



14. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker 



15. Wood-pigeon 



16. Rock Dove 



17. Red-legged Partridge ... 



18. Common Quail 



(Rcgulus cristatus) 

 {Saxicola cenanthc) 

 [Motacilla sulphurea) 

 {Fringilla tintillon) 

 {Pyrrhula murina) 

 (Scrinus canarius) 

 {Sturnus vulgaris) 

 {Dryohates minor) 

 (Columha palumhus) 

 {Columha livia) 

 {Caccabis ru/a) 

 [Coturnix comtnunis) 



All the above-named birds are common in Europe and 

 North Africa except three — the Atlantic chaffinch and the 

 canary which inhabit Madeira and the Canary Islands, and 

 the Azorean bullfinch, which is peculiar to the islands we 

 are considering. 



Origin of the Azoo^ean Bird-fauna, — The questions we 

 have now before us are — how did these eighteen species of 

 birds first reach the Azores, and how are we to explain the 

 presence of a single peculiar species while all the rest are 

 identical with European birds ? In order to answer them, 

 let us first see what stragglers now actually visit the 

 Azores from the nearest continents. The four species 

 given in Mr. Godnian s list are the kestrel, the oriole, the 

 snow-bunting, and the hoopoe ; but he also tells us that 

 there are certainly others, and adds : " Scarcely a storm 

 occurs in spring or autumn without bringing one or more 

 species foreign to the islands ; and I have frequently been 

 told that swallows, larks, grebes, and other species not 

 referred to here, are not uncommonly seen at those seasons 

 of the year." 



We have, therefore, every reason to believe that the 

 birds which are now residents originated as stragglers, 

 which occasionally found a haven in these remote islands 

 when driven out to sea by storms. Some of them, no 

 doubt, still often arrive from the continent, but these 

 cannot easily be distinguished as new arrivals among those 

 which are permanent inhabitants. Many facts mentioned 

 by Mr. Godman show that this is the case. A barn-owl, 

 much exhausted, flew on board a whaling-ship when 500 

 miles S.W. of the Azores ; and even if it had come from 



