BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 513 



(?) Geo-ipiza barringtoni Ridgxvay, Proc. U. S. Nat. ilus., xvii, no. 1007, Nov. 15, 

 1894, 361 (Barrington I., Galapagos Archipelago; collection of Dr. G. Baur);^ 

 xix, 1897, 541, pi. 57, fig. 6 (monogr.). 



GEOSPIZA ABINGDONI (Sclater and Salvin). 



ABINGDON CACTUS FINCH. 



Similar to G. fatlgata but .still larger and the bill much deeper, 

 with culmen more arched and sharply ridged. 



Adult /nafe.— Length (skins), 127.00-140.97; wing, 73.23-73.66 

 (73.41); tail, 41.91-44.96 (43.43); culmen, 21.59-22.35 (21.84); gonys, 

 10.92-12.19 (11.68); depth of bill at base, 10.41-11.43 (10.92); width 

 of mandible at base, S. 13-8. 38 (8.25); tarsus, 22.86-23.62 (23.11); 

 middle toe, 16.00-17.27 (16.51).' 



Galapagos Archipelago (Abingdon and Bindloe" islands; James 

 Island?).* 



'Type now in the Tring Museum collection. 



''Two specimens, from Abingdon Island. An immature male from the same island 

 measures as follows: "Wing, 68.07; tail, 39.37; culmen, 20.82; depth of bill at base, 

 10.16; gonys, 10.92; width of mandible at base, 8.13; tarsus, 22.61; middle toe, 16.51. 



No females of this form have been seen by me. 



*The Bindloe Island birds recently separated. {Geospiza scandens rothschildi 

 Haller and Snodgrass, Condor, iii, May, 1901, 75; Bindloe Island, Galapagos Archi- 

 pelago; Leland Stanford Jr. University callection.) 



* The Baur collection, now in the Tring Museum, contained, when I examined it, a 

 young male from James Island which certainly can not be G. scandens, the common 

 form of that island, being altogether too large and also too different in coloration. 

 While a very young bird,. its measurements decidedly exceed those of any fully 

 adult male examined of G. scandens. Although this specimen was fully described 

 by me under G. assimilis on page 538 of my "Birds of the Galapagos Archipelago" 

 (1896), it is strangely not mentioned at all, that I can find, in Messrs. Rothschild and 

 Hartert's more recent "Review." In order to call special attention to this speci- 

 men, with the view of a further attempt to determine its status, I reproduce my 

 remarks concerning it: 



"There is in Dr. Baur's collection a young male from James Island (no. 527, August 

 13, 1891), which is certainly not G. scandens, but is either G. assimilis or an unde- 

 scribed form. It is decidedly larger than any of the eight examples of G. scandens 

 with which I have compared it, the bill especially being much larger and deeper, 

 with decidedly curved culmen. These differences are the more important from the 

 fact that the. bird is a very young one, in nestling plumage. The coloration is much 

 darker than in any of the immature stages of G. scandens, the under parts being 

 mostly dark sooty grayish distinctly intermixed with whitish only on the abdominal 

 region and under tail-coverts, and the upper parts are quite uniform dark sooty, 

 except the wings, which have the usual lighter margins, though these are distinct 

 only on the middle and greater coverts. The bill is a light buffy brown, dusky at 

 the extreme tip and deeper brown basally. In coloration this James Island speci- 

 men very closely resembles a young male of corresponding age of G. abingdoni, 

 except that in the latter the maxilla is almost wholly blackish brown, and the 

 mandibular rami have a sharply defined oblique spot of the same color at their upper 

 basal portion; but the shape of the- bill is quite different, that of G. abingdoni being 

 much more slender. 



"Above uniform sooty blackish, the middle wing-coverts and remiges narrowly 

 margined with dull grayish buffy, becoming more decidedly grayish on primaries; 

 17024—01 33 



