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Natural History Of The Azores Or Western Islands (1870)
Natural History Of The Azores Or Western Islands - 1870 Author:Frederick Du Cane Godman Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Very many of the birds of the Azores are also found in the other Atlantic groups; but they have only two species, viz. Fringitta tintillon and Serinus canarius, ... more »in common which are not also European. The connexion, numerically, with Madeira is closer than with the Canaries. REPTILIA. Following M. Drouet I here insert a species of Lizard (Lacerta dugesi) which he met with in the island of Gra- ciosa. It did not come under my own observation, as I did not land on that island. The species appears to be peculiar to the Atlantic groups, having hitherto been only found in Madeira and Tenerifie. M. Drouet says it has probably been recently introduced; but still its occurrence in the Azores is significant. Dr. Giinther tells me he considers it a good species, and that it is perhaps most 'nearly allied to the European L. muralis, The same high authority says that besides this Lizard a second (Lacerta gallotti) is peculiar to the same islands of Madeira and Teneriffe, where, however, there are no other reptiles, nor are there any peculiar freshwater fish. AMPHIBIA. Sana Esculenta is the only Frog at present known in the Azores; and this, though a recent introduction, has now become fairly established, and is abundant in St. Michael's, and also in some of the central group of islands. It is less common in Flores. PISCES. Considering the size of some of the lakes in the Azores, it seems at first rather a remarkable fact that no indigenous freshwater fish is found there; the streams, however, are very small and some of them highly impregnated with sulphur and other mineral substances, which would probably destroy animal life. It is only at the bottom of old craters that any extent of water exists; such are the lakes at the Furnas, the Sete Cidades, and the Lagoa do Fogo. T...« less