64 BULLETIN OF THE NUTTALL 



ence is made to the exceeding tameness of certain Galapagos birds. 

 A similar confidence in man was likewise fomid to be a characteristic 

 of some of the Guadalupe species, as an instance of which we quote 

 the following from Dr. Palmer's notes regarding Junco insularis [see 

 imge 189 of our paper, cited at the head of this article] : "These are 

 the most abundant birds of the island, and are so tame that they may 

 be killed with a stick or captured in a buttei-fly-net. While I was 

 looking for insects under stones and logs, these birds would sometimes 

 join in the search, and hop almost into my hands. They gathered 

 chiefly ants and their eggs. At times they even enter the houses, 

 picking up anything edible they can find. Numbers boarded the 

 schooner as we neared the island, and made themselves perfectly at 

 home, roaming over every part of the vessel in search of food." It 

 seems, however, that not all the birds of the island were thus unsus- 

 picious and familiar, since Dr. Palmer remarks that it is difficult to 

 secure Thryomanes hrevicauda, on account of its shyness. 



In conclusion, a few words regarding the derivation of these insu- 

 lar forms may not be out of place. As to those of the Galapagos, 

 Mr. Salvin expresses the following opinion : "Considering their purely 

 volcanic nature, it cannot reasonably be doubted that these islands 

 have always been islands since they emerged fi'om the sea. Such 

 is Mr. Darwin's view ; and it is fully indorsed by Dr. Hooker and 

 others. The birds that are now found, being related to American 

 birds, must have emigrated thence and become modified by the dif- 

 erent circumstances with which they became surrounded. The oldest 

 immigrants seem to be indicated by their generic difference from their 

 continental allies, the more modern comers by their merely specific 

 distinctness, and the most recent by their identity with birds now 

 found on the adjoining continent. On this view the islands were 

 first taken possession of by individuals of the parent stock of Cer- 

 thidea and Conirostmm, Geosjnza and Guiraca, Camarhynchus and 

 Neorhynchus. Then came perhaps the ancestors of Buteo [galopa- 

 gensis'l * ; after these followed Mimus, Pyroceplmlus, and Myiarchus, 

 Strix and Asio, Zenceda, Larus and Spheniscus. Then those of Den- 

 droeca, Progne, Butorides, Nycticorax, and Porzana, and, finally, Doli- 

 chonyx oryzivorus, Ardea kerodias, and the Ducks, Flamingo, Gan- 

 nets, Plovers, and Sandpipers, though of these last a constant stream 



* The nearest ally of the Galapagoau Butco is B. poliosomus of the ratagouian 

 region. 



