310 THE FARALLON RAIL RIDGWAY. 



recently occurred to me, though unfortunately I am unable, from lack 

 of specimens, to settle the matter. In the "Zoology of the Beagle" 

 (1841), Mr. John Gould described a Zapornia spilonota from a speci- 

 men obtained on James Island, Galapagos, by Mr. Darwin, the de- 

 scription being accompanied by a colored figure (plate 49). This de- 

 scription and colored figure agree closely in certain characters with 

 the Farallon Eail, the back being without white spots, and those of 

 the wings and posterior under parts much smaller and less numerous 

 than in P. jamaicensis. Additional specimens were obtained in 1868 

 on Indefatigable Island, by Dr. Habel, these being mentioned by Mr. 

 Salvin in his important paper "On the Avifauna of the Galapagos 

 Archipelago" (Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, vol. 

 IX, pt. ix, 1876, pp. 447-510, pis. 84-89). 



The descriptions given by Messrs. Gould and Salvin, respectively, 

 differ considerably, especially as to the color of the upper parts. Mr. 

 Gould's is as follows : 



Head and all the under surface blackish-gray ; all the upper surface dark reddish 

 brown, fading off on the rump into deep grayish-black, the wings, hinder part of 

 flanks, and under tail-coverts slightly sprinkled with white; bill blackish-brown; 

 feet, reddish ; iris, bright scarlet. 



Mr. Salvin's description (translated from the Latin) is as follows : 

 <? (Indefatigable Island) blackish-cinereous, nearly uniform, the back and outer 

 surface of the wings washed with oily rufous; the lower flanks and under tail-cov- 

 erts obsoletely spotted with white, the wings externally, back posteriorly, and rump 

 sometimes marked in the same way ; iris scarlet ; feet olive-brown ; bill black. " * * 

 Obs. — Species similar to P. jamaicensis, but with the nape entirely blackish-cinereous 

 and the dorsal spots almost obsolete ; allied to P. tabuensis so far as colors are con- 

 cerned, but to be distinguished at the first glance by the short tail. 



Eegarding individual variations, Mr. Darwin says that " with re- 

 spect to the specific description I must observe that in one of the 

 specimens the small white spots on the wings and abdomen are want- 

 ing. This is not a sexual distioction, but possibly may be owing to 

 immaturity." Mr. Salvin also says that " a specimen in Dr. Habel's 

 collection has no s])ots on the wings and lower back, but does not 

 otherwise differ from the rest of his examples." He adds that " these 

 spots are somewhat variable, being well defined in some, obsolete in 

 others, and entirely wanting in a few;" and that "in none are they so 

 well developed as in P. jamaicensis^ the nearest ally of the present 

 bird." 



Unfortunately I have not been able to compare specimens of P. spil- 

 onota with the type of P. jamaicensis coturniculus, but the descriptions 

 and plate referred to above show that the two are very closely related — 

 much more closely, indeed, than either of them is to P. jamaicensis. 

 Points in which they agree and at the same time differ from P. jamai- 

 censis consist mainly in the restriction, both as to size and the surface 

 which they cover, of the white spots on the wings and posterior under 

 parts, these markings always covering the back in P. jamaicensis, while 



