The Legacy of R.C.L. Perkins and the Fauna Hawaiiensis

The Fauna Hawaiiensis represents a landmark in our understanding of how single ancestral forms can evolve into a diverse array of forms and functions. Here, I outline the contributions of R.C.L. Perkins, an early pioneer in studies of island fauna, and of the Hawaiian islands more generally. Their diverse and threatened birds, in particular, provided the early impetus for many ideas about evolution, biogeography and extinction, and this article outlines the genesis of many of these ideas in the 1890s and early 1900s. I end with a discussion on the oft-forgotten place that Perkins, and the Hawaiian finches, have in a broader understanding of evolutionary concepts and principles.