ira and Teneriffe, are now found wild in the Azores,
but there is good reason to believe that these have all been introduced by
human agency. The same may be said of the gold-fish and eels now found in
some of the lakes, there being not a single fresh-water fish which is truly
indigenous to the islands. When we consider that the nearest part of the
group is about 900 miles from Portugal, and more than 550 miles from
Madeira, it is not surprising that none of these terrestrial animals can
have passed over such a wide expanse of ocean unassisted by man.

Let us now see what animals are believed to have reached the group by
natural means, and thus constitute its indigenous fauna. These consist of
birds, insects, and land-shells, each of which must be considered
separately.

_Birds._--Fifty-three species of birds have been observed at the Azores,
but the larger proportion (thirty-one) are either aquatic or waders--birds
of great powers of flight, whose presence in the remotest islands is by no
means remarkable. Of these two groups twenty are residents, breeding in the
islands, while eleven are stragglers only visiting the islands
occasionally, and all are common European species. The land-birds,
twenty-two in number, are more interesting, four only being stragglers,
while eighteen are permanent residents. The following is a list of these
resident land-birds:--

1. Common Buzzard (_Buteo vulgaris_)
2. Long-eared Owl (_Asio otus_)
3. Barn Owl (_Strix flammea_)
4. Blackbird (_Turdus merula_)
5. Robin (_Erythacus rubecula_)
6. Blackcap (_Sylvia atricapilla_)
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7. Gold-crest (_Regulus cristatus_)
8. Wheatear (_Saxicola oenanthe_)
9. Grey Wagtail (_Motacilla sulphurea_)
10. Atlantic Chaffinch (_Fringilla tintillon_)
11. Azorean Bullfinch (_Pyrrhula murina_)
12. Canary (_Serinus canarius_)
13. Common Starling (_Sturnus vulgaris_)
14. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (_Dryobates minor_)
15. Wood-pigeon (_Columba palumbus_)
16. Rock Dove (_Columba livia_)
17. Red-legged Partridge (_Caccabis rufa_)
18. Common Quail (_Coturnix communis_)

All the above-named birds are common in Europe and North Africa except
three--the Atlantic chaffinch and the canary which