208 A NATURALIST ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



and rational process of intention, as opposed to mere 

 machine-like instinctive action. 



The blue-faced gannet has a plumage of uniform white, 

 with the exception of the wing-feathers and their coverts, 

 which are dark-brown. The tail is also dark brown. 

 The webs are dirty yellowish-drab, while the legs are 

 greenish-drab. The bill is greenish-yellow, while the 

 bare space between the two divisions of the lower mandible 

 is Indian ink colour. The iris is yellow. 



As far as we are aware, these islands are the only ones 

 in the Caribbean or Mexican Seas, possibly in the whole 

 world, where these three kinds of gannet could be observed 

 breeding in such intimate association. On several 

 occasions we have found two species, viz., the booby and 

 the red-footed gannet, associated, but never before all 

 three. 



We hear and read now-a-days a good deal of the innate 

 tendency of organisms to vary, and of the influence of 

 fresh environment, natural selection, segregation and 

 isolation in the production of new species ; but in these 

 three gannets, living in this isolated Uttle world, it seems 

 to us we have an excuse for pausing to consider the 

 opposite side of the question, viz., the stability of species 

 or the fixity of type one so often sees illustrated. For 

 here, we have three perfectly distinct species of gannet, 

 which have probably lived on these isolated islands for 

 untold ages, and have been exposed through all this 

 time to apparently exactly identical conditions, and yefc 

 have preserved intact, not only their distinctive specific 

 peculiarities among themselves, but also have remained 

 exactly identical with species of their own kind, found in 

 far distant tropical seas. In this connection, we have 

 compared gannets from this locality and the Caribbean 

 Sea generally, with a series of like birds in the Natural 

 History Museum, taken from far distant eastern seas ; 

 and have been unable to appreciate the least difference 

 between the various kinds found in the particular localities 

 under mention. 



