( 143 ) 



Mr. llidgway remarked that there are two groups " whicli in a more exact sense 

 might lie considered as species, the several allied forms being more properly 

 subspecies." Four or five groups would be even more natural, ^V. trifasriatus, 

 N, macdonaldi, and parndus with affinis standing rather by itself. Ridgway 

 mentioned eight species ; we are now able to recognise eleven different forms. 

 In all the species the inale has a longer bill and is generally a little larger than 

 the female, but similar in colour. 



1. Nesomimus trifasciatus ((iould). 



Orpheus Iri/ascititiis J. Gould in P. Zu,,l. Sof. Lund. p. 27 (1837). 



Miimis trlfascMtuH, Gray, Zool. Voij. Bmgle, III. Birds, p. G2. PI. XVI. (Charles I.) (1841). 



NfsomhmtR trffasciafiis^ Ridgway, p. 483 (18G1). 



This species is easily recognisable by its large size and broad blackish brown 

 baud across the chest, interrupted and concealed in the middle. There are, however, 

 not two bands, as one might expect from Ridgway's " key." The wing-coverts 

 have very conspicuous large white spots. The wing of the male is 128 — 13u mm. 

 long, the tail 123 (about — most specimens being in worn plumage, with the tails 

 much abraded), tarsus 40, exposed culmea 26 — 27 mm. The same measurements 

 in the fefnale are: Wing 110^120, tail 115 (approximately), culmen 2.5 — 26, 

 tarsus 38 — 40 mm. " Iris seal-brown, tarsi, feet and bill blackish." 



No specimens of this species have been collected since Darwiu's visit to the 

 Galapagos, where it was found on Charles Island, and the two skins iu the British 

 Museum are the only ones known from that island. Neither Dr. Habel, the 

 naturalists of the Albatross, nor Messrs. Baur & Adams met with this bird on 

 Charles Island. Our collectors did not find a Nesomimus on Charles Island, where 

 it is probably now extinct ; but on Gardner Island, a little islet close to Charles 

 Island, they found N. trifasciatus rather plentiful. At the time of their visit 

 (October) they were in woru plumage, and no young birds were met with. 



Of all the species of Xcsomimas this is one of the most distinct ones, aud it differs 

 from all the others in the colour of its iris, which is of a rich seal-brown, while all 

 the other species have a greenish or pale yellow iris. One of our skins has a few 

 white feathers in the crown. 



2. Nesomimus macdonaldi Ridgw. 



N. mncdonalcli, Ridgway in Proc. U.S. Xat. Mus. XII. p. 103. fig. 1 ; XIX. p. 484 (1890). 



Easily distinguished from N. frifrisciiiftis by the markings on the breast, wiiich 

 is not crossed by a wide interrupted black band, but only by an area of dark brown 

 spots, the crop-region too being crossed by a band of smaller dark brown sjxits, 

 separated from the other row of spots by a narrow unspotted whitish belt. The 

 feathers of the upper parts have more distinct brownish grey edges, so that the 

 npper surface has a much paler aspect. 



The bill is very long in adult males. " The iris is yellowish." 



The home of this bird is Hood Island, where five skius were collected by the 

 Albatross, and where Baur & Adams caught about half a dozen, one of which they 

 skinned, while the others reached us in spirits. 



Our collectors found them common. They were in rather worn j)lumage in 



