CHAP. XV. J 



THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 



301 



becoming extinct, have been lowered or destroyed by denudation, 

 and finally, by subsidence of the earth's crust, have altogether 

 disappeared except where their sites are indicated by the upward- 

 growing coral-reefs. If this view is correct we should give up all 

 idea of there ever having been a Pacific continent, but should 

 look upon that vast ocean as having from the remotest geological 

 epochs been the seat of volcanic forces, which from its profound 

 depths have gradually built up the islands which now dot its 

 surface, as well as many others which have sunk beneath its 

 waves. The number of islands, as well as the total quantity of 

 land-surface, may sometimes have been greater than it is now, 

 and may thus have facilitated the transfer of organisms from one 

 group to another, and more rarely even from the American, 

 Asiatic, or Australian continents. Keeping these various facts 

 and considerations in view, we may now proceed to examine the 

 fauna and flora of the Sandwich Islands, and discuss the special 

 phenomena they present. 



Zoology of the Sandiuich Islands : Birds. — It need hardly be 

 said that indigenous mammalia are quite unknown in the Sand- 

 wich Islands, the most interesting of the higher animals being 

 the birds, which are tolerably numerous and highly peculiar. Many 

 aquatic and wading birds which range over the whole Pacific 

 visit these islands, twenty-four species having been observed, 

 but even of these five are peculiar — a coot, Fidica cdai ; a 

 moorhen, Gallinula sandvichensis ; a rail with rudimentary 

 wings, Pennula millei ; and two ducks. Anas Wyvilliana and 

 Bernida sandvichensis. The birds of prey are also great wan- 

 derers. Four have been found in the islands — the short-eared 

 owl, Otus hrachyotus, which ranges over the greater part of the 

 globe, but is here said to resemble the variety found in Chile 

 and the Galapagos ; the barn oavI, St7'ix Jlanimea, of a variety 

 common in the Pacific; a peculiar sparrow-hawk, Accipiter 

 haiuaii ; and Buteo solitarius, a buzzard of a peculiar species, 

 and coloured so as to resemble a hawk of the American sub- 

 family Polyborinse. It is to be noted that the genus Buteo 

 abounds in America, but is not found in the Pacific ; and this 

 fact, combined with the remarkable colouration, renders it almost 

 certain that this peculiar species is of American origin. 



