pigeons, has a species in James Island and probably in some of the others, closely allied to a species from the west coast of America. It has been already stated that some of the islands possess peculiar species of birds distinct from the allied forms in other islands, but unfortunately our knowledge of the different islands is so unequal and of some so imperfect, that we can form no useful generalizations as to the distribution of birds among the islands themselves. The largest island is the least known; only one bird being recorded from it, one of the mocking-thrushes found nowhere else. Combining the observations of Mr. Darwin with those of Dr. Habel and Prof. Sundevall, we have species recorded as occurring in seven of the islands. Albemarle island has but one definitely known species; Chatham and Bindloe islands have 11 each; Abingdon and Charles islands 12 each; Indefatigable island and James island have each 18 species. This shows that birds are very fairly distributed over all the islands, one of the smallest and most remote (Abingdon) furnishing as many as the much larger Chatham Island, which is also the nearest {32}to the mainland. Taking the six islands which seem tolerably explored, we find that two of the species (_Dendroeca aureola_ and _Geospiza fortis_) occur in all of them; two others (_Geospiza strenua_ and _Myiarchus magnirostris_) in five; four (_Mimus melanotis_, _Geospiza fuliginosa_, _G. parvula_, and _Camarhynchus prosthemelas_) in four islands; five (_Certhidea olivacea_, _Cactornis scandens_, _Pyrocephalus nanus_), and two of the birds of prey, in three islands; nine (_Certhidea fusca_, _Progne concolor_, _Geospiza nebulosa_, _G. magnirostris_, _Camarhynchus psittaculus_, _C. variegatus_, _C. habeli_ and _Asio accipitrinus_) in two islands; while the remaining ten species are confined to one island each. These peculiar species are distributed among the islands as follows. James, Charles and Abingdon islands, have 2 each; Bindloes, Chatham, and Indefatigable, 1 each. The amount of speciality of James Island is perhaps only apparent, owing to our ignorance of the fauna of the adjacent large Albemarle island; the most remote islands north and south, Abingdon and Charles, have no doubt in reality most peculiar species, as they appear to have. The scarcity of peculiar species in Chatham Island is remarkable, it being large, very isolated, and the nearest to the mainland. There is still room for exploration in these islands, especially in Albemarle, Narborough, and Hood's islands of which we know nothing.