64 
BULLETIN OF THE NUTTALL 
ence is made to the exceeding tameness of certain Galapagos birds. 
A similar confidence in man was likewise found to be a characteristic 
of some of the Guadalupe species, as an instance of which we quote 
the following from Dr. Palmer’s notes regarding Junco insularis [see 
page 189 of our paper, cited at the head of this article] : “These are 
the most abundant birds of the island, and are so tame that they may 
be killed with a stick or captured in a butterfly-net. While I was 
looking for insects under stones and logs, these birds 'would sometimes 
join in the search, and hop almost into my hands. They gathered 
chiefly ants and their eggs. At times they even enter the houses, 
picking up anything edible they can find. Numbers boarded the 
schooner as we neared the island, and made themselves perfectly at 
home, roaming over every part of the vessel in search of food.” It 
seems, however, that not all the birds of the island were thus unsus- 
picious and familiar, since Dr. Palmer remarks that it is difficult to 
secure Thryomanes hrevicauda, on account of its shyness. 
In conclusion, a few words regarding the derivation of these insu- 
lar forms may not be out of place. As to those of the Galapagos, 
Mr. Salvin expresses the following opinion : “Considering their ^Durely 
volcanic nature, it cannot reasonably be doubted that these islands 
have always been islands since they emerged from the sea. Such 
is Mr. Darwin’s view ; and it is fully indorsed by Dr. Hooker and 
others. The birds that are now found, being related to American 
birds, must have emigrated thence and become modified by the dif- 
erent circumstances with which they became surrounded. The oldest 
immigrants seem to be indicated by their generic difference from their 
continental allies, the more modern comers by their merely specific 
distinctness, and the most recent by their identity with birds now 
found on the adjoining continent. On this view the islands were 
first taken possession of by individuals of the parent stock of Ger- 
iliidea and Conirostrum, Geospiza and Guiraca, Camarhynchus and 
Neorhynchus. Then came perhaps the ancestors of Biiteo [galopa- 
gensis^ * ; after these followed Mimus, Pyrocephalus, and Myiarchiis, 
Strix and Asio, Zenceda, Larus and Spheniscus. Then those of Den- 
droeca, Prague, Butorides, Nycticorax, and Porzana, and, finally, Dali- 
chonyx oryzivorus, Ardea herodias, and the Ducks, Flamingo, Gan- 
nets, Plovers, and Sandpipers, though of these last a constant stream 
* The nearest ally of the Galapagoan Buteo is B. poliosomus of the Patagonian 
region. 
