CH. IV] OWLS OF GALAPAGOS. 219 



fusca" dorsally, and the species is called by Messrs Sclater 

 and Salvin "pallida,"- which is significant. Mr Salvin 

 thinks that the species may have been founded upon 

 birds not adult. These statements however do not only 

 apply to genera which are peculiar to the islands and 

 occur nowhere else; indeed they would have much less 

 interest and significance if they did. One of the two Owls 

 living in the Galapagos, Asio galapagensis, is defined 

 by Mr Salvin as " Asioni brachyoto similis, sed minor, 

 coloribjis obscurioribus" &c. The Night Heron of the 

 Galapagos, whether it is a distinct species or merely a 

 variety of the common Nyctioorax violaceus, is stated to 

 be darker coloured than that species, and further instances 

 of a like nature might be brought forward from Mr Salvia's 

 monograph upon the birds of these islands. Generally 

 speaking his Latin diagnoses of the species abound with 

 such words as "niger," " nigerrimus," "fuscus," "fuli- 

 ginosus," &c, and completely bear out what has been 

 already said of the coloration of island forms belonging 

 to this as well as of other groups of the animal kingdom. 



