( 386 ) 

 Progne concolor GouUl. 



Xov. ZdOL. VI, 18'Jll, p. 13-_'. 



Mr. (ireen collected two males at Gardner Bay, Hood Island, on November lOtli. 

 The iris was brown. Beck sent it from Daphne. 



Mr. Beck made the following notes : 



On Indefatigable Island this bird was (|nite common at Conway Bay on 

 February 15th, flying back and forth along the shore, the males singing. They 

 flew low down over some dead stamps, and may possibly breed in holes in the 

 trees. At another iilace farther along they were flying low and catching insects. 

 One or two were noticed at Eden Island, close to Indefatigable, where cliti's were 

 suitable for nesting. A few seen at the ranch-house at El Progresso on Chatham 

 Island. At Tagus C!ove, Albemarle, they were quite common, and nesting in the 

 clift's along the water. Several nested on an inaccessible overhanging cliff, and at 

 the watering-place half a dozen nests were witliin reach from a ledge. They were 

 placed in holes in the soft sandy bank, probably dug out by the birds themselves. 

 One placed in a narrow crack, 3 ft. in, was pulled out with a stick. It was a loose, 

 bulky aflkir of dried weed-stems and twigs, and contained two young and one addled 

 egg. Another nest contained one fresh egg. It was left alone two or three days, 

 but no more were laid, as the nest had been disturbed. The birds here were at tlje 

 mouth of a canon, and had to fly but a few yards to catch insects and moths, which 

 were abundant about the flowers growing on the edge of the canon. Farther along 

 the shore two or three other nests were seen in holes in the cliffs, and could not be 

 reached. A number of these birds were seen flying about the toii of a hill a mile 

 away from this place. 



The two eggs which Beck sent us are smooth, but with hardly any gloss. 

 They are pure white, and measure :ii; 5x15-1 and 23-6x15 mm. 



The Genus GEOSPIZA. 



Geospi~a, as we understand it, comprises within its limits the former genera 

 Geospiza, Cactornix, and Cumnrlnjnclois of Gould, PlatijaiJiza of Hidgway, and 

 Cocornis of Townsend. 



Mr. Ridgway, in his new and admirable work. The Birth of North a ml Midillc 

 America, dissents from our view that the tinches of the Galapagos Islands belong 

 to one single genus. We cannot now, alter having examined many hundreds of 

 new specimens collected by Messrs. Beck and Green, and after the re-e.\amination 

 of the bulk of our former material, do otherwise than say that we find our former 

 conclusion fully confirmed. We do not think that Mr. Ridgway's classification of 

 this grouj) is ipiite logical. He says of the birds he includes under Cftmnrhi/nrhiix 

 and Gfiospiza that they are two "clearly distinct genera, each showing nearly the 

 same extreme variations in the size and relative length and thickness of the bill. ' 

 He also {l.r. ji. 473) says that the typical Camnrhynchiis and Plntijspiza " never 

 have more than the head, neck, and chest uniform black, while in some species there 

 is no black whatever," and the diagnosis of his genus Camnrhi/iichiis is principally 

 based on the difi'erent shape of the bill. Now, because Geospiza pallida has no 

 black areas to the plumage, he includes it in the genus Caniarhi/nchxs, and not 

 in Geospiza, although the bill is in size and shape almost exactly like that of 

 Geospiza scandens septentrionalis. He therefore attaches more value to the 



