Birds. Pl. 35.
Pipilo personata
Mandibulâ superiori tomiis medium versus sinum exhibentibus, ad mandibulæ inferioris processum recipiendum. Mandibula inferior ad basin lata, hoc infra oculos tendente. Alæ mediocres remige primo paulo breviore secundo, hoc longissimo.
Cauda brevissima et æqualis.
Tarsi magni et validi, digito postico, cum ungue robusto et digito intermedio breviore; digitis externis inter se æqualibus at digito postico brevioribus. Color in maribus niger, in fœm. fuscus.
This singular genus[[13]] appears to be confined to the islands of the Galapagos Archipelago. It is very numerous, both in individuals and in species, so that it forms the most striking feature in their ornithology. The characters of the species of Geospiza, as well as of the following allied sub-genera, run closely into each other in a most remarkable manner.
In my Journal of Researches, p. 475, I have given my reasons for believing that in some cases the separate islands possess their own representatives of the different species, and this almost necessarily would cause a fine gradation in their characters. Unfortunately I did not suspect this fact until it was too late to distinguish the specimens from the different islands of the group; but from the collection made for Captain FitzRoy, I have been able in some small measure to rectify this omission.
In each species of these genera a perfect gradation in colouring might, I think, be formed from one jet black to another pale brown. My observations showed that the former were invariably the males; but Mr. Bynoe, the surgeon of the Beagle, who opened many specimens, assured me that he found two quite black specimens of one of the smaller species of Geospiza, which certainly were females: this, however, undoubtedly is an exception to the general fact; and is analogous to those cases, which Mr. Blyth[[14]] has recorded of female linnets and some other birds, in a state of high constitutional vigour, assuming the brighter plumage of the male. The jet black birds, in cases where there could be no doubt in regard to the species, were in singularly few proportional numbers to the brown ones: I can only account for this by the supposition that the intense black colour is attained only by three-year-old birds. I may here mention, that the time of year (beginning of October) in which my collection was made, probably corresponds, as far as the purposes of incubation are concerned, with our autumn. The several species of Geospiza are undistinguishable from each other in habits; they often form, together with the species of the following sub-genera, and likewise with doves, large irregular flocks. They frequent the rocky and extremely arid parts of the land sparingly covered with almost naked bushes, near the coasts; for here they find, by scratching in the cindery soil with their powerful beaks and claws, the seeds of grasses and other plants, which rapidly spring up during the short rainy season, and as rapidly disappear. They often eat small portions of the succulent leaves of the Opuntia Galapageia, probably for the sake of the moisture contained in them: in this dry climate the birds suffer much from the want of water, and these finches, as well as others, daily crowd round the small and scanty wells, which are found on some of the islands. I seldom, however, saw these birds in the upper and damp region, which supports a thriving vegetation; excepting on the cleared and cultivated fields near the houses in Charles Island, where, as I was informed by the colonists, they do much injury by digging up roots and seeds from a depth of even six inches.
1. Geospiza magnirostris. Gould.
Plate XXXVI.