May, 1901 
THE CONDOR 
73 
The Guadalupe Wren. 
W HAT may have been the zoo- 
logical condition of Guadalupe 
Island at the time of its discov- 
ery will probably never be known, but 
that it was to the botanist and zoologist 
a spot of surpassing interest andstriking- 
ly different from the island of todaj" can- 
not be disputed. It was in 1875, when 
visited for the first time by a naturalist, 
found to be wonderfully rich in both 
plant and animal life. Not only were the 
species largely peculiar to the island 
and quite different from their mainland 
representatives but botanical genera 
were found that have since become ex- 
tinct. It is not unlikely that changes 
of importance had already taken place 
since the island became inhabitated by 
man, but such changes must have been 
largely confined to the flora and it is 
improbable that any birds had been ex- 
terminated up to that time. 
I have at the present writing no 
means of ascertaining when the domes- 
tic goat was introduced on the island 
but as it was placed on many of the 
coast islands by the early whalers it is 
not unlikely that this pest held sway on 
Guadalupe a half century or more be- 
fore the richness of the flora and fauna 
was made known to the world by Dr. 
Edward Palmer in 1875. It is directly 
due to the despised Billy-goat that 
many interesting species of plants for- 
merly abundant are now extinct, and 
also that one or more of the birds pecu- 
liar to the island has disappeared, and 
others are rapidly following. 
When the island was first visited Dr. 
Palmer took two specimens of the 
Guadalupe Wren, Thryothorns brevi- 
caudiis. These were probably taken 
near the center of the island and it is 
not unreasonable to suppose that before 
the undergrowth was killed by the 
goats, the wrens were distributed over 
the top of the island in all suitable 
cover. 
'I'en years later Mr. W. E. Bryant 
made an exhaustive survey of the is- 
land and found the wrens rare, the few 
that remained being confined to the 
northeast end of the island, where a 
growth of pines straggling along the 
sharp ridge of North Head afforded a 
habitat “of 60x300 ft.” In this restricted 
area Mr. Bryant took seven specimens. 
Fearing the extermination of the species 
the balance of the colony was un- 
molested, but as the sheltering under- 
growth was more and more constricted 
by the goats the birds were either blown 
from the island by violent gales that 
freciuently sweep over it, or killed by 
cats which infest the entire i.sland since 
their introduction at about the time of 
Dr. Palmer’s visit in 1875. The last 
week in May, 1892, Mr. Clark P. Streator, 
and myself paid a visit of one day to the 
North Head. 
Near the beach and directly below 
the pines Mr. Streator took a pair of 
wrens which are now in the collection 
of the Biological Survey. On the ridge 
near the spot where Bryant found them, 
I discovered a bird which was secured, 
and saw what may have been a second 
but was of doubtful identity. Since 
that date I have made several calls at 
Guadalupe, and though the entire top 
of the island was carefully searched by 
myself and .several a.ssistants for days at 
a time we never found any signs of the 
species which must now be cla.ssed 
among those that were. 
The constant destruction of all low- 
growing vegetation by the goats still 
continues, not only consuming the nest- 
ing sites and shelters of Junco, Pipilo 
and all ground-nesting species but giv- 
ing to the ever-watchful cat more favor- 
able opportunities for destroying the 
few birds that are X&it. Pipilo consobri 7 iiis 
is now nearly or quite extinct and the 
juncos are surely but steadily becom- 
ing scarce. Since the goats kill all of 
the young trees as soon as they appear 
above ground, and the larger trees are 
dying, the outlook for the future flora 
and fauna is not bright. 
Portland, Oregon A. W. Anthony. 
