108 Mr. F. Du Cane Godman on the Birds of the Azores. 
A glance at ttie foregoing list at once shows its entirely 
European stamp. Every species, except Thalassidroma wilsoni, 
an oceanic wanderer of the North-western Atlantic, is to be 
found in Europe, or in the outlying provinces of the European 
fauna—North Africa, the Madeiras, and Canaries. From this 
generalization two more exceptions must be made,—one in the 
case of the Chaffinch, which has its nearest and very close ally in 
the Fringilla tintillon of the Madeiras and Canaries; and the Bull¬ 
finch, to which Pyrrhula europcea or P. coccinea must be consi¬ 
dered most nearly affined. Both these species seem peculiar to the 
group. As regards the local peculiarities of Azorean birds, there 
is certainly a tendency among them to vary, more or less, from 
their continental representatives. This is especially shown 
by the former always having darker plumage and stronger bills 
and legs. In some cases the variation is not greater than may 
be observed in extreme examples from a large series of continental 
specimens of the same species; in others it becomes more re¬ 
markable, and in Fringilla moreleti and Pyrrhula murina the 
exaggeration is carried to such an extent that it is impossible to 
speak of them but as good species. 
The list further shows the gradual falling off in the number 
of species inhabiting each group of the archipelago as we pro¬ 
ceed westward and away from the Old World. Before making 
this comparison, it seems necessary to take into consideration 
what species should properly be included. I think that when 
we find birds having in most places habits so essentially migra¬ 
tory, as the Quail, Woodcock, and Snipe, here becoming resi¬ 
dent throughout the year, and losing their wandering instincts 
from the necessity of their situation, we may fairly except from 
our calculation the Gulls, Terns, and Petrels, for which these 
islands simply afford a resting-place in their wanderings, and a 
resort during the breeding-season. All others would appear, I 
think, to have arrived involuntarily, having been blown over by 
storms, or through some other such agency. The Eastern group 
has forty species, the Central thirty-six, and the Western 
twenty-nine; so that we have a gradual diminution of the num¬ 
ber of species as we proceed westward from the Pabearctic fauna. 
This seems clearly to show that storms or other external causes 
