ORNITHOLOGY OF THE ISLAND OF TOBAGO. 
cations of form. The same is borne along to the islands, insignifi- 
cant in size, but yet bearing strongly on this subject, Mauritius, the 
isles of Bourbon, and Rodriguez. These once possessed large birds, 
unwieldy in their form, which are now, like the New Zealand Dm- 
omisy known only by their scattered remains. But there are several 
groups of small islands placed between the Madagascar chain and 
the eastern shores of Africa, to which no attention has been di- 
rected ; and it would be of great interest to trace the ornithology 
of these, and see how far it corresponded with that of the continent 
or the larger islands. 
Again, we have the subject farther illustrated in another small 
region, which is perhaps the most marked instance known of a 
peculiar insular zoology. Writing of the Galapagos Archipelago, 
Darwin remarks—" The natural history of this Archipelago is very 
remarkable; it seems to be a little world within itself; the greater 
number of its inhabitants, botli vegetable and animal, being found 
almost nowhere else.” In these islands the ornithology retains the 
South American type, and some of the species are found on the 
continental lands/ Chili and La Plata ; at the same time, there are 
several birds that were not elsewhere knowu, inhabiting them, and 
there are besides a few of a form possessing remarkable characters, 
beautifully adapted to the curious vegetation of these islands, and 
which find a supply of food among the groups of cacti, themselves 
peculiar, and furnishing a common support to them and to the 
tortoises and lizards, wlikh are also so conspicuous in their fauna. 
Many of these birds are not known elsewhere ; and if we may pre- 
sume that they arc not found upon th^ mainland, we are driven to 
the question, How they came upon this insulated space, possessing 
at the same time continental species ? 
Now in regard to these statements, until we arc in a position to say 
that we know’ the zoology of the continent so well, that the animals 
inhabiting those islands do not exist there or elsewhere, we have no 
right to presume that a peculiar fauna has been created, and mixed 
up with another, which we have no hesitation in saying was intro- 
duced or transported on the upheaving of these islands ; for among 
the genera of birds which were considered peculiar, there has been 
* a It would bo impossible, accustomed to the birds of Chili and La Plata to be 
placed on these islands, and not feel convinced that he was, as far as the organic 
world was concerned, on American ground.” 
