I may add that whenever I noticed birds,
not of oceanic species, very far out at sea, they always belonged
to this order; and hence they would naturally become the earliest
colonists of any remote point of land.
Of reptiles I saw only one small lizard. Of insects I took pains to
collect every kind. Exclusive of spiders, which were numerous,
there were thirteen species. (20/4. The thirteen species belong to
the following orders:--In the Coleoptera, a minute Elater;
Orthoptera, a Gryllus and a Blatta; Hemiptera, one species;
Homoptera, two; Neuroptera, a Chrysopa; Hymenoptera, two ants;
Lepidoptera nocturna, a Diopaea, and a Pterophorus (?); Diptera,
two species.) Of these one only was a beetle. A small ant swarmed
by thousands under the loose dry blocks of coral, and was the only
true insect which was abundant. Although the productions of the
land are thus scanty, if we look to the waters of the surrounding
sea the number of organic beings is indeed infinite. Chamisso has
described the natural history of a lagoon-island in the Radack
Archipelago (20/5. Kotzebue's "First Voyage" volume 3 page 222.);
and it is remarkable how closely its inhabitants, in number and
kind, resemble those of Keeling Island.
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