OF THE GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. 475 
cimens I collected of this bird belonged to at least two, if not three, distinct species. 1 
was led to this belief by the diversity of size, though of small extent, in my specimens: 
but more notable still were the three distinct styles of colour of their plumage, their 
different habits, and a difference in their song. I collected both sexes of these supposed 
species, and found differences, with the sole exception that the females of the yellow 
species were exactly like those of the spotted kind. The smallest species, with a greyish 
green plumage and whitish breast, frequented exclusively the lower bushes on the dry 
land away from the sea-coast, and in its flight would rise just enough to clear the bush 
it rose from, and alight immediately on the next adjoining. I never saw it in company 
with the two other species. It does not sing, but merely utters a chirping note. The 
two other species are of the same size, and differ only in the colour of their plumage. 
The breast and head of one species is of a uniformly bright yellow colour; the breast of 
the other is spotted, and it bears on its head a reddish chestnut cap. Both these varieties 
mingle together and associate in small flocks of five or six birds. I never observed one 
of the plain variety without seeing some of the spotted kind with it. The first speci- 
men of the yellow variety I secured was in such company; and I considered it to be the 
female of the spotted one, especially as its cries when wounded were answered by a 
spotted male which approached me. However, on dissecting the specimen, I found, to 
my surprise, that it wasa male. Both these varieties frequent trees (‘ palo salado’ of the 
natives of the mainland) growing on the sea-shore or the lagoons formed by the spring 
tides, the roots of which are washed by the sea-water at each tide. In their lively move- 
ments from branch to branch in search of insects they chant a pleasant tune. The 
males also sing when flying, as they do rapidly, from shore landward, or vice versd, 
never remaining long in one locality. 
“Tf all the specimens of these three varieties are but the individuals of one species 
in different stages of dress, it would show that the plumage of the young is distinct 
from that of the adult, and that two changes are undergone before maturity is attained. 
A similar feature is seen in the case of Geospiza, to which I allude below. 
“On Hood’s Island, where we first touched, the gentleman in whose company I 
visited the Galapagos archipelago and I observed sume birds which seemed to us to 
belong to a species or variety distinct from the present bird. ‘Their yellow plumage 
was of a less brilliant colour; and they did not possess the characteristic reddish 
chestnut cap.”—ZH. 
Ihave no doubt that there is but one species of this bird, and that the apparent 
differences noticed by Dr. Habel are to be attributed to different stages of plumage. 
Those as described above are the young birds in their earliest dress, the adult females 
(through which stage the maturing males pass), and the adult males. 
