THE CHIEF COLEOPTEROUS FAUNAE. 



17 



would be almost proof positive of former continuity of land with 

 some country where the Manatee lived ; for it is a herbivorous 

 animal, and could neither have crossed from South America or 

 Africa (where different species of Manatee still live) to St. He- 

 lena as it now stands. But it is not a Manatee ; the observer 

 from whom Baynes quotes says it is undoubtedly the Sea-lion of 

 Anson, and gives a description of it, which shows that it must 

 have been a species of Seal, doubtless that which he supposes (the 

 Sea-lion, or JPhoca leonina), which also occurs at Tristan d' Acunha, 

 and yields plenty of oil, Carmichael mentioning that one animal 

 there will give 70 gallons. 



In ornithology there is, I believe, only one undoubted aboriginal 

 land-bird, the Charadrius pecuarius of Temminck, a small Plover, 

 named the Wire-bird (probably so called from its wire-like legs). 

 It is so exceedingly close to the Cape C. Kittlitzii, that it has 

 been confounded with it by ornithologists ; until lately it was 

 shown by Mr. Layard to be distinct. The Plover (and like the 

 others this Cape species) is a migratory bird, consequently it is 

 not difficult to suppose that it might, in the course of its migrations, 

 have been blown off from the coast of Africa to St. Helena. But 

 after arriving there it must have become modified by the altered 

 conditions of life into the C. pecuarius, and, among other modifi- 

 cations, ceased to be migratory, for that bird is a constant resident 

 in St. Helena all the year round. 



Baynes, in his ' St. Helena,' speaks of the Grenadier G-rossbeak 

 (Loxia orix) as an inhabitant, and says it is locally called the 

 Wire-bird. That it is so called is certainly a mistake ; but if really 

 an inhabitant of St. Helena, it does not seem a likely one to have 

 been introduced ; and if not introduced, then it certainly is micro - 

 typal, all the species of the genus being confined to the northern 

 hemisphere. If the Canary has not been introduced, it would be 

 another microtypal species, and more than that, a species belong- 

 ing to the Atlantic subfauna. It is, however, said to have been 

 introduced either intentionally or involuntarily by man. It is 

 suited to the climate, and being a universal favourite of man, 

 nothing seems more likely than that it should have been intro- 

 duced by the escape of cage-birds ; but I cannot learn that the 

 belief rests on anything more than presumption and probability ; 

 and it may be said, on the other side, that if St. Helena was once 

 a member of the Atlantic fauna, it is natural that it should occur 

 there, and that, although so great a favourite and universal acom- 



L1NN. PROC. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. XI. 2 



