We shall
hereafter see this law of aquatic forms, whether marine or fresh
water, being less peculiar at any given point of the earth's
surface than the terrestrial forms of the same classes, strikingly
illustrated in the shells, and in a lesser degree in the insects of
this archipelago.
Two of the waders are rather smaller than the same species brought
from other places: the swallow is also smaller, though it is
doubtful whether or not it is distinct from its analogue. The two
owls, the two tyrant-flycatchers (Pyrocephalus) and the dove, are
also smaller than the analogous but distinct species, to which they
are most nearly related; on the other hand, the gull is rather
larger. The two owls, the swallow, all three species of
mocking-thrush, the dove in its separate colours though not in its
whole plumage, the Totanus, and the gull, are likewise duskier
coloured than their analogous species; and in the case of the
mocking-thrush and Totanus, than any other species of the two
genera. With the exception of a wren with a fine yellow breast, and
of a tyrant-flycatcher with a scarlet tuft and breast, none of the
birds are brilliantly coloured, as might have been expected in an
equatorial district.
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