332 



SNODGRASS AND HELLER 



MEASUREMENTS OF ADULT SPECIMENS OF GcOS^iZtt stvenua. 



66. GEOSPIZA MAGNIROSTRIS Gould. 



Geospiza magnirostris Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., p. 5, 1837 (Charles 

 Island), and Zool. Voy. Beagle, III, Birds, p. 100, pi. 36, 1841. — RlDG- 

 WAY, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xix, p. 512, 1896; Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 

 50, Pt. I, 495, 1901. 



Range. — Charles Island. 



The specimens from which this species was described were collected 

 by Darwin on Charles Island. No expedition since then has obtained 

 specimens of the species from any of the islands of the archipelago. 

 Rothschild and Hartert give the following measurements of the three 

 adult males in the British Museum: " Culmen 26.5, 27, 27 mm.; 

 height of bill at base 23.5-24 mm. ; wing 91, 91, 95 mm. ; tarsus 25 

 mm. These measurements show that G. magnirostris has both a 

 larger bill and longer wing than any specimens of G. strenua yet ob- 

 tained, and that the bill is much larger than that of the average G. 

 strenua individual. 



This ends the side branch begun with G. fortis fortis from G. 

 fuliginosa parvula leading up to the largest-billed forms of Geospiza 

 with the adult females in Stage III. We will now go back to the 

 continuation of the series leading from G. fuliginosa through its 

 varieties and through G. debilirostris and G. septentrionales into the 

 subgenus Cactornis, where the females as well as the males acquire a 

 melanistic plumage when adult. 



