s found in the
several islands of the group.

Taking the above in the order here given, we have, first, two peculiar
genera of true 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 seven or eight peculiar genera, and twenty-two
species which are believed to form a peculiar family allied to the Oriental
flower-peckers (Diceidae), and perhaps remotely to the American greenlets
(Vireonidae), or {316} tanagers (Tanagridae). 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 expected,
chiefly with Australia and the Pacific Islands; but they exhibit in the
buzzard, one of the owls, and perhaps in some of the Drepanididae, slight
indications of very rare or very remote communication with America. The
amount of speciality is, however, wonderful, far exceeding that of any
other islands; the only approach to it being made by New Zealand and
Madagascar, which have a much more varied bird fauna and a smaller
_proportionate_ number of peculiar genera. The Galapagos, among the true
oceanic islands, while presenting many peculiarities have only four out of
the ten genera of Passeres peculiar. 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. For further details as to the affinities and
geographical distribution of the genera and species, the reader must
consult Mr. Scott Wilson's work _The Birds of the Sandwich Islands_,
already alluded to.

_Reptiles._--The only other vertebrate animals are two lizards. One of
these is a very widespread species, _Ablepharus poecilopleurus_, ranging
from the Pacific Islands to West Africa. The other is said to fo