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Show 460 GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. Oct. 1835. I will now offer a few general observations on the natural history of these islands. I endeavoured to make as nearly a perfect collection in every branch as time permitted. The plants have not yet been examined, but Professor Henslow, who has kindly undertaken the description of them, informs me that there are probably many new species, and perhaps even some new genera. They all have an extremely weedy character, and it would scarcely have been supposed, that they had grown at an inconsiderable elevation directly under the equator. In the lower and sterile parts, the bush, which from its minute brown leaves chiefly gives the leafless appearance to the brushwood, is one of the Euphorbiacero. In the same region an acacia and a cactus ( Opuntia Galapageia*), with large oval compressed articulations, springing from a cylindrical stem, are in some parts common. These are the only trees which in that part afford any shade. Near the summits of the different islands, the vegetation has a very different character; ferns and coarse grasses are abundant; and the commonest tree is one of the Compositre. Tree-ferns are not present. One of the most singular characters of the Flora, considering the position of this archipelago, is the absence of every member of the palm family. Cocos Island, on the other hand, which is the nearest point of land, takes its name from the great number of cocoa-nut trees on it. From the presence of the Opuntias and some other plants, the vegetation partakes more of the character of that of America than of any other country. Of mammalia a large kind of mouse forms a well-marked species. From its large thin ears, and other characters, it approaches in form a section of the genus, which is confined to the sterile regions of South America. There is a:so a rat which Mr. Waterhouse believes is probably distmct _fr?m the English kind; but I cannot help suspecting th~t 1t 1s only the same altered by the peculiar conditions of 1ts new country. .,_ Magazine of Zoology and Botany, vol. i., p. 466. Oct. 1835. ORNITHOLOGY. 461 In my collections from these islands, Mr. Gould considers that there are twenty-six different species of land birds. With the exception of one, all probably are undescribed kinds, which inhabit this archipelago, and no other part of the world. Among the waders and waterfowl it is more difficult, without detailed comparison, to say what are new. But .a water-sail which lives near the summits of the mountains, is undescribed, as perhaps is a Totanus and a heron. The only kind of gull which is found among these islands, is also new; when the wandering habits of this genus are considered, this is a very remarkable circumstance. 'fhe species most closely allied to it, comes from the Strait of Magellan. Of the other aquatic birds, the species appear the same with well-known American birds. 'fhe general character of the plumage of these birds is extremely plain, and like the Flora possesses little beauty. Although the species are thus peculiar to the archipelago, yet nearly all in their general structure, habits, colour of feathers, and even tone of voice, are strictly American. The following brief list will give an idea of their kinds. 1st. A buzzard, having many of the characters of Polyhorus or Caracara ; and in its habits not to be distinguished from that peculiar South American genus ; 2d. Two owls ; 3d. Three species of tyrant-flycatchers- a form strictly American. One of these appears identical with a common kind (Muscicapa coronata? Lath.), which has a very wide range, from La Plata throughout Brazil to Mexico; 4th. A sylvicola, an American form, and especially common in the northern division of the continent ; 5th. Three species of mocking-birds, a genus common to both Americas ; 6th. A finch, with a stiff tail and a long claw to its hinder toe, closely allied to a North American genus; 7th. A swallow belonging to the American division of that genus ; 8th. A dove, like, but distinct from, the Chilian species ; 9th. A group of finches, of which Mr. Gould considers there are thirteen species ; and these he has distributed into four new sub-genera. These birds are the most singular of |