284 SNODGRASS AND HELLER 



from the swamps at Elizabeth Bay, Albemarle, taken in February ; 

 four adult males, two adult females, one immature male and five im- 

 mature females from the mangrove swamps on the east shore of Nar- 

 boro Island, taken in January, March and April ; and one adult female 

 from Tagus Cove, Albemarle, taken in June. 



We have examined also specimens of this species in a collection be- 

 longing to Captain W. Johnson, of San Francisco, collected in 1900 

 and 1901 by Mr. G. M. Green, of San Francisco. The specimens 

 are from the mangrove swamps at Tagus Cove, Albemarle, and also 

 from the mangrove swamps on the southeast part of Albemarle, abreast 

 of the Grossman Islands. They are exactly the same as our birds 

 from Tagus Cove, Elizabeth Bay and Narboro. Mr. Green obtained 

 one specimen of Geospiza pallida from the eastern side of the moun- 

 tain south of Perry Isthmus. 



In the preceding table No. 41S6 was taken mated with No. 4138. 



Subgenus Camarhynchus Gould. 



Camarhynchus Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. , p. 6, 1837. (Type Cajiia- 

 rhynchiis psittacula Gould.) 



Adult males with the back, head, throat and breast blackish. 

 Sexes dissimilar. Female never blackish. The young resemble the 

 adult female. Bill conical with the culmen strongly curved. 



The males of this subgenus go through Stages I to V. This is an ad- 

 vance of two stages beyond the stage attained by the males of the last 

 subgenus. The female remains in Stage III. Birds in Stages I and II 

 have the bill yellowish. In the higher stages the bill is generally black. 



There is but slight variation in the shape of the bill. The species 

 can be most naturally arranged in a series graded by the size of the bill, 

 beginning with the smallest billed form and ending with the largest. 

 Among the specimens there is considerable variation in color, but it is 

 probable that the males of all the species eventually attain the stage in 

 which the entire upper and fore parts are blackish, although such 

 forms have not been reported for all the species. But many are rare 

 and black males are unknown only in the rarer species. 



55. THE GEOSPIZA PROSTHEMELAS SERIES. 



55«. GEOSPIZA PROSTHEMELAS PROSTHEMELAS 

 (Sclater and Salvin). 



Camarhynchus prosthemelas Sclater and Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 

 p. 323, fig. 4, 1870 (type, from Indefatigable Island). — Ridgway, Proc. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus., XIX, p. 563, 1896 ; Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 50, Pt. i, 

 p. 485, 1901, 



