1867.] The Polynesians and their Migrations. 165 



group we yet know with any approach to completeness are the Birds ; 

 and though these may not he supposed to he the hest adapted to 

 test a question of this kind, yet ornithologists know that a very 

 moderate extent of ocean practically limits the range of most land 

 hirds. The total number of species found in any of these islands 

 is very small. For example, if we exclude the waders, swimmers, 

 and birds of prey as having roving habits and great powers of 

 flight, we find that according to the best information only twenty- 

 two species of land birds inhabit the group of the Society Islands, 

 and of these seven are found in other groups ranging as far as the 

 Marquesas, the Fiji Islands, and even to the Sandwich Islands. 

 These are almost all birds of moderate powers of flight and such 

 as inhabit the forests and mountains, and do not generally range 

 far. In Mr. G. E. Gray's list of the birds of the Pacific Islands I 

 find eleven species cf the genera Myzomela, Meliphaga, Tatare t 

 Monarcha, Coriphilns, Eudynamis, and Ptilonojpus, which are known 

 from two or more of the distinct and well separated groups of 

 islands in the central Pacific, and some of them have a very wide 

 range. Among these are two very distinct genera, Tatare and 

 Coriphilas, which are entirely confined to the Polynesian area. 

 Now these facts would certainly indicate a more intimate connection 

 of the various groups of islands within the period of living species, 

 and therefore within the human period, than now exists. The 

 phenomena presented by the distribution of man are thus to some 

 extent reproduced by the distribution of land-birds in the same area, 

 and entitle us to believe that the subsidence of land indicated by 

 coral reefs took place since man inhabited the earth. This subsi- 

 dence was probably coincident with, perhaps caused by, the elevation 

 of the existing volcanic islands; and while man and birds were 

 able to migrate to these, the mammalia dwindled away and finally 

 perished, when the last mountain-top of the old Pacific land sank 

 beneath the Ocean. 



This hypothesis is one which does not outrage nature, as does 

 that of the direct and recent derivation of the Polynesians from the 

 Malays. It harmonizes at once with the Geological, the Zoological, 

 and the Anthropological phenomena ; and if it is held that the facts 

 are not sufficient to prove it, or that even if proved it only removes 

 the origin of the race in question one step further back into the 

 obscurity of the past, it may be suggested that in a case of such 

 admitted difficulty we can hardly do more. We ought not to 

 expect that the beginnings of every race are to be discovered within 

 the short epoch of human history or tradition, and we have every 

 reason to be suspicious of the theory that professes such a dis- 

 covery. In the present case, the very erroneous views prevalent on 

 the subject arise from two causes. One is the occurrence of a 

 number of Malay words in the Polynesian language ; the other, 

 the similarity of the brown tint of the Malays and Polynesians, 



