Mr. A. Newton's two Days at Madeira. 
185 
XIX .—Two Days at Madeira. 
By Alfred Newton, M.A., F.L.S., F.Z.S. 
To a naturalist, beyond any other traveller, I think, the 
aspect of a country he is visiting for the first time, in whatso¬ 
ever part of the world it may lie, is a matter of great and never- 
ending interest. This interest is, of course, greatest in the case 
of a country whose natural productions are entirely unknown ; 
but it would not be inconsiderable even in one, if such there be, 
whose fauna and flora have been already thoroughly worked out. 
It accordingly follows that localities of the intermediate and 
most numerous class, where the animals and plants are already 
more or less catalogued, must possess an interest inversely pro¬ 
portionate to the amount of facts which are on record concerning 
them. Such an instance of the middle class is offered by the 
cluster of islands known as the Madeiras, the field wherein one 
of the most reflective and diligent zoologists of our time has so 
long laboured. Even of those among us who take no special 
heed of entomology, there can scarcely be one who has not 
been charmed with the writings of Mr. Wollaston, whether from 
the ardent love of nature and the keen powers of observation 
they betray, or the masterly handling of results and the sound 
inductive philosophy they evince. Ornithologists may well wish 
that a naturalist so gifted had paid as much attention to the 
birds of the Madeiras as to its beetles, and this without in any 
way depreciating the useful information respecting the former, 
furnished at various times by Mr. Edward Vernon Harcourt*. 
It is rather in the hope of encouraging some one who may have 
the opportunity of further studying Madeiran ornithology that 
I venture to offer the following remarks; for I myself, during my 
late short visit, collected no specimens, and made no personal 
observations, possessing any novelty. 
The European character of the Madeiran fauna is well known. 
* “ Notice of the Birds of Madeira,” P.Z.S., 1851, pp. 141-146, reprinted 
in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 2nd ser. vol. xii. pp. 58-63; ‘ A Sketch 
of Madeira,’ London, 1851, pp. 115-123; “Description of a New Species 
of Regulus from Madeira,” P. Z. S., 1854, p. 153; and “ Notes on the 
Ornithology of Madeira,” Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 2nd ser. vol. xv. pp. 
430-438. 
VOL. V. 
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