BIRDS OF THE GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. 



By Robert Ridgway, 



Curator of the Department of Birds. 



Introduction. — While the present publication is intended to embody 

 practically all tliat is kuowu of the avifauna of the Galapagos Archi- 

 pelago, it does not claim to be exhaustive, for a great deal has yet to be 

 learned before anything like a complete exposition of the subject is 

 jjossible. Although our knowledge of the bird life of this interesting 

 island grouj) has been vastly increased since the publication of Dar- 

 win's discoveries there, chiefly through the large collections made by 

 Dr. Habel in 18G8, the naturalists of the Albatross in 1888 and 1891, 

 and Messrs. Baur and Adams in 1891, the information which has accu- 

 mulated is still too fragmentary to warrant any serious attempt to solve 

 the problems to which Mr. Darwin first called attention. 



Theories as to the origin of the Galapagoan ftiuna and related prob- 

 lems will therefore be briefly touched in the following pages, the prin- 

 cipal object of the work being to collate the knowledge thus far secured 

 and thereby facilitate future investigation in the field whose natural 

 products afforded the basis of Darwin's deductions concerning " the 

 complicated problems involved in the doctrine of the derivative origin 

 of species, . . . the importance of which in their bearing upon the 

 study of natural science has never been equaled."' 



But for the unfortunate loss in transit of a box containing a large 

 number of specimens collected by Messrs. Baur and Adams on South 

 Albemarle, Charles, Hood, and Barrington islands,^ we should know 

 much more concerning the fauna of those islands from which such scant 

 material has been examined by naturalists. 



Not a single island of the group can be said to have been exhaust- 

 ively explored,^ and few of the species are known in all their various 



iSalvin, Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond., IX, Pt. ix, 1876, pp. 461-462. 



^Tliis box, which was lost or stolen at Guayaquil, contained specimens of land 

 birds from these least explored islands of the group, among them being more than 

 forty species from the southern part of Albemarle Island, the fauna of which is 

 almost unknown. 



Many novelties may be expected to occur in the elevated interior portions of the 

 islands, where " clouds usually hang over the higher mountains, where the moisture 

 is fur greater than on the seashore, and consequently the vegetation is far more 

 luxuriant" (Salvin). These verdurous mountain districts, being less readily acces- 

 sible than the arid lowlands, are doubtless but very imperfectly explored. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XIX-No. 1116. 



459 



