294 SNODGRASS AND HELLER 



rotJischildi^ so that there is scarcely a break in the bill series of Cac- 

 tornis even when G. conirostris is included in it. 



63. THE GEOSPIZA FULIGINOSA SERIES. 



This series comprises all the smaller billed forms of Geospiza. 

 Under it we include the subspecies G.y. parvula, G. f. fuliginosa^ 

 G. f. minor ^ G.f. acutirostris SLwd G. f. difficilis. It is represented 

 on every island of the archipelago except the two most northern and 

 smallest ones — Wenman and Culpepper. The bill varies within the 

 following limits: Culmen 1 2-15.5, width of bill at base 6.3-8, depth 

 of bill at base 6.5-10. 



The species is the most abundant in individuals almost everywhere 

 that it occurs, as well as the most widely distributed. 



62a. GEOSPIZA FULIGINOSA PARVULA (Gould). 



Geospiza parvula Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., p. 6, 1837 (James). — 



RiDGWAY, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xix, p. 529, 1896. 

 Geospiza fiiliginosa fuliginosa Rothschild and Hartert, Novit. Zool., vi, 



p. 161, 1899. 

 Geospiza fiili^tiosa Ridgway (not of Gould), Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xix, 



p. 526, 1896 ; Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 50, Pt. i, p. 504, 1901. 



Range. — James, Albemarle, Narboro, Duncan, Jervis, Indefatig- 

 able, Seymour, Barrington, Charles, Gardner (near Charles) and 

 Hood. 



Most of the specimens referred to Geospiza parvula by Ridgway are 

 undoubtedly simply small sized specimens of the same species that he 

 called Geospiza fuliginosa. Rothschild and Hartert state that " the 

 type of G. parvula., according to Darwin, had been collected on James 

 Island." Hence the name Geospiza fuliginosa parvula (Gould) must 

 be given to the representatives of G. fuliginosa inhabiting the islands 

 given above, since these differ slightly as a whole from the representa- 

 tives on Chatham to which the name G. fuliginosa fuliginosa 

 (Gould) must be given. 



The bill of G.f. parvula is shaped like that of G. fort is but is 

 considt^'ably smaller, the culmen averaging about thirteen millimeters, 

 being always less than fifteen. The variety differs from G. f. fuligi- 

 nosa in the shorter but less slender bill. Some specimens from the 

 northern slope of Narboro have unusually slender bills which nearly 

 equal in length those of the longest billed Chatham specimens. 



This is the most abundant form of Geospiza in the archipelago. 

 It outnumbers in individuals all the other species together almost 

 everywhere that it occurs. On account of its being the most easily 



