36 PBOCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.79 



One morning on Indefatigable Island while we were on a beach, 

 Seaman Ralph Nelson began to break up a crab {Grapsus) with a 

 staff, to ascertain whether it contained edible meat. A Galapagos 

 heron had been feeding among the rocks, and had paid no apparent 

 attention to us, but when it saw the crab being broken the bird came 

 running up to where we were standing. To find out what it would 

 do, we quietly backed off, when the bird immediately approached the 

 crab, looked it over without touching it, and then, satisfied, walked 

 back to its feeding-ground. When the pounding of the crab was 

 resumed, the heron raced back again, this time stopping between 

 us only a foot or two away. First it would look at the crab and then 

 up at our faces as if asking what all this affair was about. Its 

 bewildered expression was very amusing. 



NYCTANASSA VIOLACEA PAUPER (Sclater and Salvin) 

 Galapagos night lierou 



Nycticorax pauper Sclatea aud Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1870, p. 327. 

 (Indefatigable Island, Galapagos Archipelago.) 



Four specimens were collected in the Galapagos, two immature 

 females at Tower Island June 14 and 16, 1929, an adult male at 

 Daphne Island June 23, and an immature male at Tagus Cove on 

 Indefatigable Island August 25. These are all' appreciably darker 

 than the typical form and seem to be easily separable as a distinct 

 race. 



This was not an uncommon species on all of the Galapagos Islands 

 visited by us, the immature birds being much in evidence. On Tower 

 Island a certain adult, when approached, reminded one of a road- 

 runner as it ran into a thick clump of shrubbery, whence it would not 

 flush. 



PHOENICOPTEKUS RUBER Linnaeus 



Flamingo 



Phoenicopterus ruber Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 139. 

 (Jamaica, Cuba, and Bahamas.) 



Although reported by natives, the only one seen was a young bird 

 in a dooryard at Villamiel, Albemarle Island, which recently had 

 been captured not far distant. 



DAFILA GALAPAGENSIS (Ridgway) 



Galapagos pintail 



Poecilonetta galapagensis Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 12, February 

 5, 1890, p. 115. (Charles Island, Galapagos Archipelago.) 



On June 24 one of these ducks was seen at close range on a lagoon 

 on Indefatigable Island. A few flying birds were reported by 

 members of the party from time to time, but this was the only one 

 near enough to show any pattern. 



