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 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 {317} 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 Achatinellinae, 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 Auriculidae (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. This difference is so remarkable that it is worth stating in a comparative form:-- Inoperculata. Operculata. Auriculidae. Sandwich Islands 332 5 9 Rest of Pacific Islands 200 115 16