OF THE GALAPAGOS AECHIPBLAGO. 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 was a 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 versa, 

 never remaining long in one locality. 



" If 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 some 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." — H. 



I have no doubt tiiat 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 bii'ds in their earliest dress, the adult females 

 (through which stage the maturing males pass), and the adult males. 



