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GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. Oct. 1835. 



any in the archipelago. They all agree in many points ; 

 namely, in a peculiar structure of their bill, short tails, 

 general form, and in their plumage. The females are gray 

 or brown, but the old cocks jet-black. All the species, ex- 

 cepting two, feed in flocks on the ground, and have very 

 similar habits. It is very remarkable that a nearly perfect 

 gradation of structure in this one group can be traced in the 

 form of the beak, from one exceeding in dimensions that of 

 the largest gros-beak, to another diff'ering but little from that 

 of a warbler. Of the aquatic birds I have already remarked 

 that some are peculiar to these islands, and some common to 

 North and South America. 



We will now turn to the order of reptiles, which forms, 

 perhaps, the most striking feature in the zoology of these 

 islands. The species are not numerous, but the number of 

 individuals of each kind, is extraordinarily great. There is 

 one kind both of the turtle and tortoise ; of lizards four ; 

 and of snakes about the same number. 



I will first describe the habits of the tortoise [Testudo In- 

 dicus) which has been so frequently alluded to. These 

 animals are found, I believe, in all the islands of the Archi- 

 pelago ; certainly in the greater number. They frequent in 

 preference the high damp parts, but likewise inhabit the 

 lower and arid districts. I have already mentioned* proofs, 

 from the numbers which have been taken in a single day, 

 how very numerous they must be. Some individuals grow 

 to an immense size: Mr. Lawson, an Englishman, who had 

 at the time of our visit charge of the colony, told us that he had 

 seen several so large, that it required six or eight men to lift 

 them from the ground ; and that some had afforded as much 

 as two hundred pounds of meat. The old males are the 

 largest, the females rarely growing to so great a size. The 

 male can readily be distinguished from the female by the 



* Dampier says, " The land-turtles are here so numerous, that five or 

 six hundred men might subsist on them for several months without any 

 other sort of provisions. They are so extraordinarily large and fat, and 

 so sweet, that no pullet eats more pleasantly." — Vol. i., p. 1 10. 



