BIRDS 



273 



Range. — Same as that of the genus given above. On the Galapa- 

 gos Archipelago : James, Charles and Chatham. 



We did not meet with this species. It is recorded simply as a winter 

 visitor, but five hundred and fifty miles of ocean is a long distance for 

 it to traverse accidentally. 



Family FRINGILLIDiE. 

 Genus Geospiza Gould. 



GeospizaGov'L.Ji, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., p. 5, 1837. 



Cactornis Gould, ibid., p. 6. 



Camarhynchus CiOMUo, ibid., p. 6. 



Platyspiza Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xix, p. 545, 1896. 



Cactospiza Ridgway, ibid., p. 546. 



Range. — Peculiar to the Galapagos Archipelago and found on all 

 of the islands. 



We follow Rothschild and Hartert in combining all the Fringillid 

 species of the Galapagos into one genus, Geospiza. It appears cer- 

 tain that they have all been derived from one form, and it is a matter 

 of convenience more than anything else to give them all one name. 

 Authors have heretofore disregarded the color in relating the species to 

 one another, and have established different groups on the shape of the 

 bill alone. The lines thus drawn have been found to break down, but, 

 as we shall show, four well separated groups can be recognized on a 

 color basis. These groups are nearly coincident with those that have 

 been established on the different shapes of the bill, and the types of 

 the latter each fall into one of the groups as based on the color, so that 

 the same names may be retained. These groups are : Cactospiza, 

 Camarhynchus, Geospiza and Cactornis. We include them under 

 the genus Geospiza as subgenera, but this is making simply an arbi- 

 trary difference of degree between genera and subgenera. 



The members of the genus as a whole present, in the young and 

 adults, six different pha-ses of plumage. Since these phases occur at 

 definite periods in the growth of the individual birds they may be 

 described as stages. The following are brief descriptions of these 

 stages, which, throughout the discussion of Geospiza, we represent 

 by the Roman numerals I to VI. Stage I is described in detail under 

 G. pallida, and Stages II- VI under G. fuliginosa parvula. 



Stage I. — General color yellowish-olive, darker above, pale below ; 

 wings dusky, the feathers widely edged with olive ; middle and greater 

 wing coverts with yellowish rufous edgings. Bill yellowish, darker 

 above. 



