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Show 302 ISLAND LIFE. [rAin n. Coming now to the Passeres, or true perching birds, we find sixteen species, all peculiar, b3longing to ten genera, all but one of which are also peculiar. The following is a list of these extremely interesting birds:- I. MusCJCAPIDJE (Flycatchers). 1. Ohasiem.pis sandvichensis. 2. Phmornis obscum. II. MELIPHAGIDJE (IloHeysuckcrs.) 3. J,Johoa nobilis. 4. , bmcca.ta. 5. , apicalis. G. Chcctoptila angustiplurna. III. DREPANIDIDlE. 7. D1·epanis coccinea. 8. , 1·osea. 9. , jlava. 10. , sanguinea. Drepanididre -continned. 11. Hemignctthus olivaceus. 12. , obsctwus. 13. , laddus. 14. Loxops coccinea. 15. , , am· ea. 16. LoJ.:ioides bailloni. 1 7. Psitti1·ostra psittacea. 18. li'1·in(Jilla anna (recently described, perhaps belongs also to this group). IV. CoRVID.lE (Crows). 19. Co1·vus hawaiensis. Taking the above in the order here given, we have, first, two peculiar genera of flycatchers, a family confined to the Old World, but extending over the Pacific as far as the Marquesas Islands. Next we have two peculiar genera (with four species) of honeysuckers, a family confined to the Australian region, and also ranging over all the Pacific Islands to the Marquesas. We now come to the most important group of birds in the Sandwich Islands, comprising five peculiar genera, and eleven or twelve species, which are believed to form a peculiar family allied to the Oriental flower-peekers (Diceidre), and perhaps remotely to the American greenlets (Vireonidre), or tanagers (Tanagridre). They possess singularly varied beaks, some having this organ much thickened like those of finches, to which family some of them have been supposed to belong. In any case they form a most peculiar group, and cannot be associated with any other known birds. The last species, and the only one not belonging to a peculiar genus, is the Hawaiian crow, belonging to the almost universally distributed genus Corvus. On the whole, the affinities of these birds are, as might be C.:f!Al'. xv.] TilE SANDWICII ISLANDS. 303 expected, chiefly with Australia and the Pacific Islands; but they exhibit in the buzzard, one of the owls, and perhaps in some of the Drepanididre, slight indications of very rare or very remote communication with America. The amount of speciality is, however, wonderful, far exceeding that of any other islan'ds; the only approach to it being made by New Zealand and Madagascar, which have a much more varied bird fauna and a smaller p1·op01 ·tionate number of peculiar genera. These facts undoubtedly indicate an immense antiquity for this group of islands, or the vicinity of some very ancient land (now submerged), from which some portion of their peculiar fauna might be derived. Reptiles.-The only other vertebrate animals are two lizards. One of these is a very widespread species, Ablepharus p~cilopleurz~ s, said by Dr. Gunther to be found in Timor, Australia, the Samoa Islands, and the Sandwich Islands. It seems hardly likely that such a range can be due to natural causes. The other is said to form a peculiar genus of geckoes, but both its locality and affinities appear to be somewhat doubtfuL Land-shells.-The only other group of ·animals which has been carefully studied, and which presents features of especial interest, are the land-shells. These are very numerous, about thirty genera, and between three and four hundred species having been described; and it is remarkable that this single group contains as many species of land-shells as all the other Polynesian Islands from the Pelew Islands and Samoa to the Marquesas. All the species are peculiar, and about three-fourths of the whole belong to peculiar genera, fourteen of which constitute the subfamily Achatinellinre, entirely confined to this group· of islands and constituting its most distinguishing feature. Thirteen genera (comprising sixty-four species) are found also in the other Polynesian Islands, but three genera of Auriculidre (Plecotrema, Pedipes, and Blauneria) are not found in the Pacific, but inhabit-- the former genus Australia, China, Bourbon, and Cuba, the two latter the West Indian Islands. Another remarkable peculiarity of these islands is the small number- of Operculata, which are represented by only one genus and five species, while the other Pacific Islands have twenty genera and 115 species, or more than half the number of the Inoperculata. |
