ORNITHOLOGY OF THE ISLAND OF TOBAGO. 
now support ; especially with insects, those delicate and frail beings, 
which would perish in the sea, as was formerly supposed, in their 
flights from distant lands.” In this distribution, the migration of 
insects, the countless flights of various lepidoptera, show the pos- 
sibility of beings, apparently in no way adapted for lengthened 
journeys, being transported to immense distances. Many speci- 
mens of the migratory locust have been captured in this country, 
which in all probability crossed from the continent. The accom- 
plished naturalist above quoted, mentions the circumstance of 
Acherontia atropos , flying on board the Chieftain of London, when 
*at least 1000 miles from the nearest land of the Western 
Islands. Darwin records a species of Achrydium, which flew on 
board the Beagle, when distant from the nearest land 370 miles ; 
and at another time, “ When we were about ten miles from the 
Bay of San Bias, vast numbers of butterflies, in bands or flocks of 
countless myriads, extended as far as the eye could range; even 
with the aid of a glass, it was impossible to see a space free from 
butterflies.” In the voyage of the Samarang the same facts occur — 
“ Beccalmed off the African coast, some hundred miles from the 
land, large numbers of insects were observed floating on the surface 
of the water, some AcJirydia and locusts being still alive.” And 
it thus ceases to be considered remarkable, that even the smallest 
and weakest members of the class of birds, should be able to cross 
vast distances, when we know that more frail beings, and even 
animals, possessed of neither aquatic or serial locomotive powers, 
are often met with much farther from land, than either their 
strength or structure would allow us to warrant, without a know- 
ledge of the facts themselves.* 
In examining insular zoology, we are often much struck with 
the peculiar fauna of some small patch of land, remote in the 
ocean, supporting creatures found or at least known to exist no- 
where in the world, except on that limited space. It is true, the 
ornithology of islands ahvays resembles that of the most adjacent 
* “ It is worthy of being recorded, that a noble specimen of the Boa Constrictor 
was lately conveyed to us (St. Vincent’s) by the currents, twisted round the trunk of 
a large sound cedar tree, which had probably been worked out of the bank by the 
floods of some great South American river, while its huge folds hung on the branches 
as it waited for its prey;” and as a proof that the animal had suffered nothing from 
its voyage except hunger, it is added, “ that the monster was destroyed after killing 
a few sheep.” — Lansd. Guilding , Zool. Journ., iii. p. 406. 
