GUADALUPE WREN 203 



account is in the nature of an obituary notice, it seems worth while to 

 quote rather freely from a historical sketch of the island and the bird, 

 as published by A. W. Anthony (1901) ; he writes : 



What may have been the zoological condition of Guadalupe Island at the time 

 of its discovery will probably never be known, but that it was to the botanist and 

 zoologist a spot of surpassing interest and strikingly different from the island 

 of today cannot be disputed. It was in 1875, when visited for the first time by a 

 naturalist, found to be wonderfully rich in both plant and animal life. Not only 

 were the species largely peculiar to the island and quite different from their main- 

 land representatives but botanical genera were found that have since become 

 extinct. * * * 



I have at the present writing no means of ascertaining when tlie domestic goat 

 was introduced on the island but as it was placed on many of the coast islands 

 by the early whalers it is not unlikely that this pest held sway on Guadalupe a 

 half century or more before the richness of the flora and fauna was made known 

 to the world by Dr. Edward Palmer in 1875. It is directly due to the despised 

 Billy-goat that many interesting species of plants formerly abundant are now 

 extinct, and also that one or more of the birds peculiar to the island has disap- 

 peared, and others are rapidly following. 



Dr. Palmer collected only two specimens of this wren on Guadalupe, 

 on which Mr. Ridgway (1876) named and described the species in 

 detail, saying among other things that "this insular form is much 

 grayer than the T. hewicki spilurus of California and Western Mexico." 

 Later on (1904) he describes it as "practically identical in coloration 

 with T. heioickii charlenturis [now called correctus^ except tail (the 

 middle rectrices of which are more narrowly and nmch less distinctly 

 barred), but much smaller, tail relatively shorter, and bill much 

 longer." 



Walter E. Bryant (1887) made two visits to Guadalupe in 1885, in 

 Januai"y and December, remaining 3 months on the latter visit. He 

 gives full description of the island which is situated 220 miles south- 

 westward from San Diego and lies between latitudes 28°45' and 

 29° 10' N. ; it is about 15 miles long and 5 miles wide at its widest part 

 and is said to reach an altitude of 4,523 feet at the highest point. He 

 collected seven specimens of this wren on February 16, 1886, four males 

 and three females, and says : "This rare local species has become much 

 restricted in distribution and perhaps in numbers since Dr. Palmer ob- 

 tained the only two known specimens in 1875. I am informed that no 

 collecting was done at that time among the pines on the northern por- 

 tion of the island, in which place alone was I able to discover any trace 

 of this species ; and as no collecting was done by Dr. Palmer among the 

 palms (an unlikely place for the birds to be found), I infer that the 

 two original specimens must have been found toward the central 

 portion of the island." 



According to Mr. Anthony (1901) , the restricted area in which Mr. 

 Bryant collected his specimens consisted of a growth of straggling 

 pines along the sharp ridge of North Head, affording a habitat of about 

 60 by 300 feet. He says: 



