_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. Scott B. Wilson, who visited the Sandwich Islands for the purpose of investigating their ornithology, and collected assiduously in the various islands of the group for a year and a half. This gentleman is now publishing a finely illustrated work on Hawaiian birds, and he has kindly furnished me with the following list. PASSERES OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. MUSCICAPIDAE (Flycatchers). 1. _Chasiempis ridgwayi_ Hawaii. 2. ,, _sclateri_ Kauai. 3. ,, _dolei_ Kauai. 4. ,, _gayi_ Oahu. 5. ,, _ibidis_ Oahu. 6. _Phaeornis obscura_ Hawaii. 7. ,, _myadestina_ Kauai. MELIPHAGIDAE (Honeysuckers). 8. _Acrulocercus nobilis_ Hawaii. 9. ,, _braccalus_ Kauai. 10. ,, _apicalis_ (extinct) Oahu or Maui. 11. _Chaetoptila angustipluma_ (extinct) Hawaii. {315} DREPANIDIDAE.