Vou. II, Pr. 11] GIFFORD—BIRDS OF THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS 239 
August, nor in the island of vegetation on the south side, to 
which we made a trip in December from Jervis. 
From what little was seen of this bird, it is strictly terres- 
trial and does not feed in the trees as do the other species. Of 
course, Our experience with it was very limited compared to 
that with the Sooty and Sturdy Ground Finches and the Cac- 
tus Finch. 
25. Geospiza scandens: Cactus FINCH 
Abingdon, Albemarle, Barrington, Bindloe, Champion, 
Charles, Chatham, Daphne, Duncan, Gardner-near-Charles, 
Indefatigable, James, Jervis, Onslow, and Seymour islands. 
The Cactus Finch occurred more or less commonly on all 
of the above islands, excepting Daphne and Onslow. One 
was taken on the former island on November 23, another on 
July 25. The latter locality is a mere rock off the coast of 
Charles, on which one was seen February 25. On Duncan 
they were not common; however, one or two were noted 
almost every time we went inland. On the west end of Chat- 
ham they were also scarce, two being taken by Mr. Beck on 
February 23 and two more on July 7. Two were seen on 
the road near the beach at Wreck Bay on September 8 and 10 
respectively. Only two were seen on Cowley Mountain, 
Albemarle, in August, and they were at an altitude of 2500 
feet. 
They were perhaps most common on Charles, where they 
were found both in the arid region and the humid; in the lat- 
ter chiefly when the oranges were ripe. Asa rule these birds 
were at home in the arid region, particularly where there was 
a good growth of cactus. The interior of Charles was the 
one exception. There their occurrence seemed to be governed 
by the abundance of ripe oranges. In early March, when 
very few ripe oranges were found, only two or three were 
noted in the interior. In May they were found commonly 
in a grove of trees bearing ripe fruit, while elsewhere in the 
interior they were scarce. This habit of coming into the 
humid belt to feed is evidently recently acquired and brought 
about by the introduction of oranges. On islands where 
oranges do not occur they were not found in the humid belt. 
On such islands their frequency of occurrence seemed nor- 
