ts
surface, as well as many others which have sunk beneath its waves. The
number of islands, as well as the total quantity of land-surface, may
sometimes have been greater than it is now, and may thus have facilitated
the transfer of organisms from one group to another, and more rarely even
from the American, Asiatic, or Australian continents. Keeping these various
facts and considerations in view, we may now proceed to examine the fauna
and flora of the Sandwich Islands, and discuss the special phenomena they
present.

[Illustration: MAP OF THE NORTH PACIFIC WITH ITS SUBMERGED BANKS.]

The light tint shows where the sea is less than 1,000 fathoms deep.
The dark tint ,, ,, ,, more than 1,000 fathoms deep.
The figures show the depths in fathoms.

_Zoology of the Sandwich Islands: Birds._--It need hardly be said that
indigenous mammalia are quite unknown in the Sandwich Islands, the most
interesting of the higher animals being the birds, which are tolerably
numerous and highly peculiar. Many aquatic and wading birds which range
over the whole Pacific visit these islands, twenty-five species having been
observed, but even of these six are peculiar--a coot, _Fulica alai_; a
moorhen, _Gallinula galeata_ var _sandvichensis_; a rail with rudimentary
wings, _Pennula millei_; a stilt-plover, _Himantopus knudseni_; and {314}
two ducks, _Anas Wyvilliana_ and _Bernicla sandvichensis_. The birds of
prey are also great wanderers. Four have been found in the islands--the
short-eared owl, _Otus brachyotus_, which ranges over the greater part of
the globe, but is here said to resemble the variety found in Chile and the
Galapagos; the barn owl, _Strix flammea_, of a variety common in the
Pacific; a peculiar sparrow-hawk, _Accipiter hawaii_; and _Buteo
solitarius_, a buzzard of a peculiar species, and coloured so as to
resemble a hawk of the American subfamily Polyborinae. It is to be noted
that the genus Buteo abounds in America, but is not found in the Pacific;
and this fact, combined with the remarkable colouration, renders it almost
certain that this peculiar species is of American origin.

The Passeres, or true perching birds, are especially interesting, being all
of peculiar species, and, all but one, belonging to peculiar genera. Their
numbers have been greatly increased since the first edition of this work
appeared, partly by the exertions of American naturalists, and very largely
by the researches of Mr. Sc