CHAr. XV.] 
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 Sandwich 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, Fulica alai ; a 
moorhen, Gallinula sandvichensis ; a rail with rudimentary 
wings, Pennula millei; and two ducks, Anas Wyvilliana and 
Bernicla sandvichensis. The birds of prey are also great wan- 
derers. Four have been found in the islands — the short-eared 
owl, Otus brachyohis, 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 owl, Strix flammea, of a variety 
common in the Pacific; a peculiar sparrow-hawk, Accipiter 
haivaii ; and Buteo solitarius, a buzzard of a peculiar species, 
and coloured so as to resemble a hawk of the American sub- 
family Polyborinae. 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. 
