344 



SNODGRASS AND HELLER 



moulting. The bills are very pale, being either dusky brown all 

 around, or having the upper mandible dusky and the lower pale 

 brownish or even pinkish -yellow; one purely black specimen has also 

 the sides of the upper mandible yellowish. The male from Culpep- 

 per taken in December has the bill blackish-brown except the sides 

 of the base of the lower mandible which are yellowish-brown. Im- 

 mature males resemble those of G. c. conirostris but the feathers of 

 the back are widely margined with grayish-buff ; they also lack, in 

 most cases, conspicuous buffy edgings to the greater and middle wing 

 coverts, although one specimen has them well developed. We have 

 no female specimens that appear to be mature, but, from the light 

 color of the bill in the adult male, one would expect to find a still 

 paler bill in the female. 



The bill of one specimen has a distinct groove on each side of the 

 upper mandible, running from the nostril, in a curve parallel with the 

 culmen, to the tomium. Another has a less distinct groove in a simi- 

 lar position on the left side of the upper mandible. 



The following measurements show that the Culpepper specimen 

 does not differ from the Tower specimen. They show also the inter- 

 grada^ion between this form and the one on Hood, and the small dif- 

 ference between this species and G. scandens rothschildi. 



MEASUREMENTS OF ADULT SPECIMENS OF Geosfiza cofiirostris 



■propinqua. 



>]ob. GEOSPIZA CONIROSTRIS CONIROSTRIS (Ridgway). 



Geospiza conirostris Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xii, p. 106, fig. 2, 

 1890, and Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xix, p. 516, 1896 (Hood Island); 

 Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 50, Pt. I, p. 498, iqoi. 



Geospiza media Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xii, p. 107, fig. 3, 1890 

 (Hood Island). 



