4 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th Ser. 



the south side, however, there is considerable fertile green 

 country. It was there that Mr. Beck found a very distinct 

 new species of tortoise, Testudo phantasticus. As far as birds 

 were concerned, not a single specimen was obtained there. 

 The reasons for the failure of the Expedition properly to 

 explore the mountains on Indefatigable, Albemarle, and Nar- 

 borough islands, were primarily lack of pack animals, and 

 secondarily lack of proper shelter from the drenching rains 

 and fogs of the mountains. Nevertheless, the collections 

 brought back are more extensive than any heretofore obtained. 

 New territory was explored, and in some instances long jour- 

 neys of three and four days' duration were made. For in- 

 stance, on southeastern Albemarle the interior was penetrated 

 for a distance of thirty miles. 



The physical characteristics of the Galapagos Islands have 

 been so well described by Messrs. Stewart and Williams in 

 papers of this same series that the reader is referred to their re- 

 marks,^ for the writer has nothing additional to offer. Mr. 

 Stewart's classification of botanical regions has been followed 

 in this paper. In the second part the matter of botanical re- 

 gions in relation to the birds will be taken up. 



Mr. Stewart likewise furnishes a good description of the 

 physical characteristics of Cocos Island,^ the bird-fauna of 

 which is here treated along with that of the Galapagos Islands, 

 The coral atoll of Clipperton has no land-birds, and hence but 

 little interest attaches to it in connection with a study of the 

 birds of Cocos and the Galapagos Islands. A description of 

 Clipperton Island is omitted, although accounts of the birds 

 are given along with those of Cocos Island and the Galapagos 

 group. For an excellent description of Clipperton the reader 

 is referred to Messrs. Snodgrass and Heller's paper on The 

 Birds of Clipperton and Cocos Islands.^ 



For the sake of convenience, Dr. Sharpe's Hand-List of 

 Birds has been followed in the matter of names and sequence 

 of species throughout this paper. The seven species of petrels 

 known to occur among the islands are to be treated by Mr, 

 Loomis in a separate paper. 



^See Stewart, A Botanical Survey of the Galapagos Islands, Proc. Calif. Acad. 

 Sci., 4th ser., v. 1, pp. 206-245; and Williams, The Butterflies and Hawk-Moths of 

 the Galapagos Islands, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 4th ser., v. 1, pp. 290-296. 



^See Stewart, Notes on the Botany of Cocos Island, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 

 4th ser., v. 1, pp. 375-383. 



^Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., v. 4, pp. 501-504. 



