The Other Twenty-Five Birds
Consist, Firstly, Of A Hawk, Curiously Intermediate In Structure
Between A Buzzard And The American Group Of Carrion-Feeding
Polybori; And With These Latter Birds It Agrees Most
Closely In Every Habit And Even Tone Of Voice.
Secondly,
there are two owls, representing the short-eared and white
barn-owls of Europe.
Thirdly, a wren, three tyrant-flycatchers
(two of them species of Pyrocephalus, one or both of
which would be ranked by some ornithologists as only varieties),
and a dove - all analogous to, but distinct from, American
species. Fourthly, a swallow, which though differing
from the Progne purpurea of both Americas, only in being
rather duller colored, smaller, and slenderer, is considered
by Mr. Gould as specifically distinct. Fifthly, there are three
species of mocking thrush - a form highly characteristic of
America. The remaining land-birds form a most singular
group of finches, related to each other in the structure of
their beaks, short tails, form of body and plumage: there are
thirteen species, which Mr. Gould has divided into four
sub-groups. All these species are peculiar to this archipelago;
and so is the whole group, with the exception of one species
of the sub-group Cactornis, lately brought from Bow Island,
in the Low Archipelago. Of Cactornis, the two species may
be often seen climbing about the flowers of the great cactus-
trees; but all the other species of this group of finches,
mingled together in flocks, feed on the dry and sterile ground
of the lower districts.
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