its size larger than those of any bther pigeon, and its
pectoral muscles are immense. A fact communicated to
me by the son of my friend Mr. Duivenboden of Ternate,
would show that, in accordance with these peculiarities of
structure, it possesses the power of flying long distances.
Mr. D. established an oil factory on a small coral island, a
hundred miles north of New Guinea, with no interveningo
land. After the island had been settled a year, and
traversed in every direction, his son paid it a v isit;
and just as the schooner was coming to an anchor, a bird
was seen flying from seaward which fell into the water
.exhausted before it could reach the shore. A boat was
sent to pick it up, and it was found to be a Nicobar
pigeon, which must have come from New Guinea, and
flown a hundred miles, since no such bird previously
inhabited the island.
This is certainly a very curious case of adaptation to
an unusual and exceptional necessity. The bird does
not ordinarily require great powers of flight, since it
lives in the forest, feeds on fallen fruits, and roosts
in low trees like other ground pigeons. The majority
of the individuals, therefore, can never make full use
of their enormously powerful wings, till the exceptional
case occurs of an individual being blown out to sea,
or driven to emigrate by the incursion of some carnivorous
animal, or the pressure of scarcity of food. A
Bxiodification exactly opposite to that which produced
H h e wingless birds (the Apteryx, Cassowary, and Dodo),
¡ t p p e a r s to have here taken place ; and it is curious that
■ " pofh cases an insular habitat should have .been the
■noving cause. The explanation is probably the same as
■that applied by Mr. Darwin to the case of the Madeira
■beetles, many of which are wingless, while some of thé
■winged ones have the- wings better developed than the
■same species on the continent. It was advantageous to
■these insects either never to fly at all, and thus not. run
■the risk of being blown out to sea, or to fly so well as to
■be able either to return to land, or to migrate safely to the
■continent. Bad flying was worse than not flying at all.
B o , while in such islands as New Zealand and Mauritius,
■far from all land, it was safer for a ground-fèéding bird
■not to fly at all, and the short-winged individuals con-
■tinually surviving, prepared the way for a wingless group
■of birds ; in a vast Archipelago thickly strewn with
■islands and islets it was advantageous to be able ooca-
■sionally to migrate, and thus the long and strong-winged
■varieties maintained their existence longest, and ultimately
■supplanted all others, and spread the race over the whole
! ■Archipelago.
Besides thi. s pi. geon, the only new bi. rd I obtai. ned duri. ng
■the trip was a rare goat-sucker (Batrachostomus crinifrons),
■the only species of the genus yet found in the Moluccas.