GUADALUPE HOUSE FINCH 319 



CARPODACUS AMPLUS Ridgway 



Guadalupe House Finch 



Habits 



A larger house finch, with an even larger bill, lives on Guadalupe 

 Island, off the west coast of Lower California. 



Ridgway (1901) describes it as "similar to C, mexicanus mexi- 

 canus, but much larger, the bill especially; coloration darker and 

 browner above, more broadly streaked with dusky beneath; the 

 adult male with red (or yellow) of throat, etc., extended over breast." 



It seems worthwhile to consider the environment in which the 

 Guadalupe house finch still continues its somewhat precarious exist- 

 ence on an island where at least two endemic forms have already 

 become extinct and others seem to be threatened with a similar fate. 

 The foUowmg extracts are from a paper by John E. Thayer and 

 Outram Bangs (1908): 



Guadaloupe Island, the northern end of which lies about 160 miles southwest 

 from San Antonio point, Lower California, is about 20 miles long and from 3 to 7 

 miles ^vide. It is of volcanic origin, and is traversed throughout its entire length 

 by a chain of mountains, the highest of which is some 4500 feet above sea level. 

 The western and northern sides of this range slope rapidly toward the ocean, ending 

 in many places in high perpendicular cliffs. Toward the south the slope is more 

 gradual and ends less abruptly. The southern part of the island, which is lowest, 

 is rocky and barren, and during May and June, 1906, was a sun-burned waste with 

 hardly a leaf of living verdure. 



At the northern end of the island extending along a narrow ridge, and in some 

 places down its perpendicular face is a fast decaying pine wood. No young trees 

 appear anywhere and the old ones are gradually falHng, the ground being strewn 

 with decaying trunks. * * * Most of the higher parts of the island are open, 

 rocky table land, but near the very highest part, north of Mt, Augusta, is a large 

 cypress wood, occupying an area of nearly three square miles. The eastern edge 

 of this large cypress grove ends abruptly at a ridge below which is another much 

 lower table land. Upon this is a second but very much smaller grove of cypress 

 with several springs and pools of water, more or less alkaUne, near by. Here 

 Brown and Marsden made their camp. Among the cypresses of both groves there 

 are numerous dried stumps of some shrub now extinct in Guadaloupe. No young 

 trees could be found in or about the groves, and most of the old trees show the 

 marks of the teeth of goats, and many are dying. Far down the northwestern 

 slope there is a large grove of cabbage palms, and another smaller one near Steamer 

 Point on the west shore. Among the palms are a few fine oaks, from 30 to 65 feet 

 in height, and under a cliff east of the cabins several stunted ones that branch very 

 low down like shrubs * * * . 



The domestic goat and cat turned loose upon the island many years ago, are 

 of course responsible for the destruction of its flora and ornis. Brown and Mars- 

 den estimated the numbers of the goat to be between six and eight thousand. 

 It eats up every growing thing. All shrubs have long been exterminated and 

 not a young tree, palm, oak, pine or cypress can be found in the island. The 

 cat is also very numerous and undoubtedly has caused the extinction of two of 



