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An Erroneous Record for the Perovian Booby

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In a recent publication dealing with birds of the Galapagos Islands (Fisher, A. K., and Wetmore, A.; Report on Birds Recorded by the Pinchot Expedition of 1929 to the Caribbean and Pacific, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 79, Art 10, 1931, p. 32) the present writer is responsible for the identification of a booby collected by A. K. Fisher on Tower Island, June 14, 1929, as Sula variegata (Tschudi). Dr. Robert Cushman Murphy has called my attention to the fact that earlier records of variegata from the Galapagos have been erroneous, and on reexamination I find that the specimen in question is in reality an adult female of Sula dactylatra granti Rothschild (Bull. British Orn. Club, 13, October 31, 1902, p. 7). Though Rothschild in the description of granti and in a subsequent paper (Bull. British Orn. Club, 35, January 27, 1915, p. 44) has called attention to the proper identity of these boobies from the Galapagos, they have been recorded by several recent authors as variegata. It was through following these that error was committed, as I had overlooked the description of granti, and National Museum material of true variegata is very limited. Sula variegata is not known to occur in the Galapagos.

United States National Museum, Washington, D. C., November 7, 1931

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