BIRDS 235 



Subspecies are arranged in the order of their apparent relation- 

 ships, not according to priority of description. 



All measurements, unless otherwise stated, are in millimeters. 

 Measurements of length are in all cases of the specimen before 

 being skinned. 



Family SPHENICIDJE. 



Genus Spheniscus Brisson. 

 Spheniscus BRISSON, Ornithologist, vi, p. 96, 1760. 



Range. Antarctic regions, southern parts of South America and 

 Africa, and the Galapagos Archipelago. 



i. SPHENISCUS MENDICULUS Sundevall. 



Spheniscus mendiculus SUNDEVALL, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., pp. 126, 129, 

 1871 (James Island, Galapagos). RIDGWAY, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xix, 

 p. 660, 1896. ROTHSCHILD AND HARTERT, Novit. Zool., vi, p. 199, 1899. 



Range. Galapagos Archipelago : Charles, Seymour, James, Dun- 

 can, Albemarle and Narboro. 



This species is most common at Tagus and Iguana Coves on Albe- 

 marle, about Narboro, and on the east side of the Seymour Islands. 

 It probably seldom if ever occurs at the more northern islands of the 

 group Abingdon, Bindloe, Tower, Wenman and Culpepper. We 

 did not see it at any of these islands or at Chatham or Barrington. 

 Captain Noyes told us that he once saw one at Wenman Island. If 

 so this is the only record of the occurrence of the family north of the 

 equator, Wenman Island lying in i2O f N. 



The species is said to be closest to S. magellanicus of the southern 

 part of South America, ranging northward to southern Chile on the 

 west, to Rio Grande do Sul on the east, and inhabiting the Falkland 

 Islands and South Georgia. It differs from this species in being 

 smaller and in having a longer and more slender bill. 



We have four specimens from Tagus Cove, all of them having a 

 pale brownish-gray inner margin to the dorsal edge of the wings. 

 The skin about the bill is pinkish-purple ; the upper mandible black, 

 yellow at the base, and with a light spot on the side before the nostril ; 

 lower mandible black on the distal third, the rest pale yellowish. 



The birds sit most of the time on the rocks near the shore, from 

 which, when disturbed, they simply drop off into the water. When 

 sitting in an upright attitude the body is for the most part held per- 

 pendicular, but it is bent forward somewhat at the middle of the 

 spine, giving the bird a sort of humpbacked appearance. The wings 



