_Azores._--Considering the remoteness of this group from every other land, it is surprising to find as many as fifty-three species of birds inhabiting or visiting the Azores; and still more to {207}find that they are of Palæarctic genera and, with one exception, all of species found either in Europe, North Africa, Madeira, or the Canaries. The exception is a bullfinch peculiar to the islands, but closely allied to a European species. Of land birds there are twenty-two, belonging to twenty-one genera, all European. These genera are _Cerchneis_, _Buteo_, _Asio_, _Strix_, _Turdus_, _Oriolus_, _Erithacus_, _Sylvia_, _Regulus_, _Saxicola_, _Motacilla_, _Plectrophanes_, _Fringilla_, _Pyrrhula_, _Serinus_, _Sturnus_, _Picus_, _Upupa_, _Columba_, _Caccabis_, and _Coturnix_. Besides the bullfinch (_Pyrrhula_) other species show slight differences from their European allies, but not such as to render them more than varieties. The only truly indigenous mammal is a bat of a European species. Nine butterflies inhabit the Azores; eight of them are European species, one North American. Of beetles 212 have been collected, of which no less than 175 are European species; of the remainder, nineteen are found in the Canaries or Madeira, three in South America, while fourteen are peculiar to the islands. Now these facts (for which we are indebted to Mr. Godman's _Natural History of the Azores_) are both unexpected and exceedingly instructive. In most other cases of remote Oceanic islands, a much larger proportion of the fauna is endemic, or consists of peculiar species and often of peculiar genera; as is well shown by the case of the Galapagos and Juan Fernandez, both much nearer to a continent and both containing peculiar genera and species of birds. Now we know that the cause and meaning of this difference is, that in the one case the original immigration is very remote and has never or very rarely been repeated, so that under the unchecked influence of new conditions of life the species have become modified; in the other case, either the original immigration has been recent, or if remote has been so frequently repeated that the new comers have kept up the purity of the stock, and have not allowed time for the new conditions to produce the effect we are sure they would in time produce if not counteracted. For Mr. Godman tells us that many of the birds are modified--instancing the gold-crested wren, blackcap, and rock dove--and he adds, that the {208}modification all tends in one direction--to produce a more sombre plumage, a greater strength of feet and legs, and a more robust bill. We further find, that four of the land-birds, including the oriole, snow-bunting, and hoopoe, are not resident birds, but straggle accidentally to the islands by stress of weather; and we are told that every year some fresh birds are seen after violent storms. Add to this the fact, that the number of species diminishes in the group as we go from east to west, and