270 



ISLAND LIFE. 



[part II. 



to sea on a tree uprooted by a flood such as often occurs in 

 tropical climates and especially during earthquakes. To some 

 such accident we may perhaps attribute the presence of 

 these creatures in the Galapagos, and that it is a very rare one 

 is indicated by the fact that only two species have as yet 

 succeeded in obtaining a footing there. 



Birds. — We now come to the birds, whose presence here may 

 not seem so remarkable, but which yet present features of in- 

 terest not exceeded by any other group. Fifty-seven species 

 of birds have now been obtained on these islands, and of these 

 thirty-eight are peculiar to them. But all the species found 

 elsewhere, except one, belong to the aquatic tribes or the waders 

 which are pre-eminently wanderers, yet even of these eight are 

 peculiar. The true land-birds are thirty-one in number, and all 

 but one are entirely confined to the Galapagos ; while more than 

 half present such peculiarities that they are classed as distinct 

 genera. All are allied to birds inhabiting tropical America, 

 some very closely ; while one — the common American rice-bird, 

 which ranges over the whole northern and part of the southern 

 continents — is the only land-bird identical with those of the 

 mainland. The following is a list of these land-birds taken 

 from Mr. Salvin's memoir in the Transaxtions of the Zoological 

 Bociety for the year 1876 : — 



TURDID^. 



1. Mimiis trifasciatiis This and the two allied species are 



2. me^anotus \ related to a Peruvian bird Mimus 



3. 5, parvulus ...J longicaudus. 



Mniotiltid^. 



. ^ , , f Closely allied to the wide-ranging D. 



4. Dendroeca aureola ..| a:„stiva. ■ 



HlRUNDINID^. 



^ ^ ■ f Allied to P. purpurea of North and 



5. Prognc concolor ... South America' 



CcEFvEBID^. 



6. Certhidea olivacea 

 7 fusca .. 



) A peculiar genus allied to the Andean. 

 / genus Conirostrura. 



