(PLATE 3, FIG. 1.)
_Geospiza magnirostris_ Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1837, p. 5
(Galapagos Islands); Rothschild & Hartert, Nov. Zool. 1899 p. 154, 1902
p. 388; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XII, pp. 6, 7 (Fig.); Ridgway, B.
North and Middle America I, p. 495 (1901).
As explained in Nov. Zool. 1899, p. 154, it is uncertain where Darwin
obtained the type specimens of Gould's _G. magnirostris_, as
"Unfortunately, most of the specimens of the finch-tribe were mingled
together," as Darwin tells us in his "Journal of Researches" (New Edition
1890, p. 420), and he had only "strong reasons to suspect that some of the
species of the sub-group _Geospiza_ are confined to separate islands." We
are, however, convinced that the types of _G. magnirostris_ can only have
come from Charles Island, where it is, probably, the representative of _G.
strenua strenua_. It seems, however, that _G. magnirostris_ exists no
longer, for all subsequent collectors have failed to obtain specimens,
unless an immature specimen in the U. S. Nat. Mus., from Charles Island
(No. 115,905), is a young _magnirostris_ (cf. Nov. Zool. 1902, p. 388).
The dimensions of the three black specimens in the British Museum are as
follows: Culmen 26.5, 27, 27; height of bill at base 23.5-24; wing 91, 91,
95; tarsus 25 mm. These measurements--a culmen of over 26.5 and a wing of
91 mm. combined--do not occur among our large series of _strenua_, and
therefore it is hardly possible that _G. magnirostris_ is composed of huge
examples of _strenua_ only.
As Charles Island has been inhabited for many years it is not at all
unlikely that a bird became extinct on that place. On plate 3 is figured
_G. magnirostris_ and a head of _G. strenua_ for comparison. {12}