Fœm. Corpore superiore, gutture pectoreque intensè brunneis, singulis plumis pallidiorè marginatis; abdomine crissoque cinereis, stramineo tinctis; rostro pallidè fusco; pedibus nigrescenti-fuscis.
Deep sooty black, with the under tail-coverts white; the bill and feet blackish brown.
Female: Upper surface of the body, throat and breast intensely brown, with the margins of each feather paler; the abdomen and the under tail coverts cinereous, tinged with straw colour; the bill pale fuscous, and the feet blackish fuscous.
Habitat, Galapagos Archipelago, (James’ Island.)
Birds. Pl. 42.
Cactornis scandens.
Birds. Pl. 43.
Cactornis assimilis.
The species of this sub-genus alone can be distinguished in habits from the several foregoing ones belonging to Geospiza and Camarhynchus. Their most frequent resort is the Opuntia Galapageia, about the fleshy leaves of which they hop and climb, even with their back downwards, whilst feeding with their sharp beaks, both on the fruit and flowers. Often, however, they alight on the ground, and mingled with the flock of the above mentioned species, they search for seeds in the parched volcanic soil. The extreme scarceness of the jet black specimens, which I mentioned under the head of the genus Geospiza, is well exemplified in the case of the C. scandens, for although I daily saw many brown coloured ones, (and two collectors were looking out for them), only one, besides that which is figured, was procured, and I did not see a second.