THE PHCENIX AND OTHER ISLANDS 
525 
even fourteen months, and the Marquesan cultivates 
little beyond his taro. In the island of Hiva-oa there is 
another French official, but the progress made towards 
civilising the natives is not very great. 
The Marquesas and Society Islands being the most 
easterly groups of non-coralline islands in the Pacific, it 
is interesting to notice the extreme poverty of their 
animal life. Indigenous terrestrial mammals are quite 
unknown; neither are there any snakes, and only one 
lizard. Birds are much less numerous than in the more 
western islands, no less than twenty-five genera of the 
Fiji and Samoan groups being wanting, and there is only 
one new form to supply their place—a peculiar fruit- 
pigeon (Serresms galeatus ), which inhabits the western 
part of ISTukahiva. Insects, also, are extremely scarce. 
This striking diminution of the forms of life indicates 
that the islands have been peopled by emigration from 
the west, and do not contain the relics of an ancient con¬ 
tinental fauna, as is sometimes supposed; for in that case 
there would be no reason why the number of genera and 
species of birds, reptiles, and insects should regularly 
decrease from west to east as they undoubtedly do. 
11. Manahiki, Phoenix, and other Islands. 
North of the Society group lie several widely scattered 
islets very seldom visited, several of which have been 
annexed by Great Britain. Caroline or Thornton Island, 
Manahiki, Penrhyn or Tongarewa, and perhaps Suwarrow, 
may be regarded as forming the Manahiki—or, as it is 
by some called, the Penrhyn—group. North of these 
are Starbuck and Malden, both of which are British. 
Crossing the Equator, we come to another set of islets, 
lying between lat. 2° and 7° N. Finally, north of the 
