Excerpt from The Galapagos Finches (Geospizinae): A Study in Variation Leacock, photographer; and Mr. And Mrs. T. W. J. Taylor, bota nists. The main party arrived at Guayaquil, Ecuador, in late No vember 1938, and reached the Galapagos on December 14, leaving again on April 3, 1939. The writer worked on Chatham Island from arrival until January 29, January 30 was spent on Hood, January 31 to April 2 on Indefatigable, and April 3 on Tower Island. W. H. Thompson worked with the writer on Chatham until January 10, then on Indefatigable from January 11 until the middle of February, when he became ill. Up to the time of his illness, W. H. Thompson shared equally in the field observations on breed ing behavior and ecology, and may therefore be considered equally responsible with the writer for the data upon which Sections II and III are based. The majority of the life histories had been worked out before he became incapacitated. Unfortunately, since my re turn to England after the war started, I have been unable to get in touch with him for writing up these sections. However, I have had a copy of most of his original field notes from which to work. I should like to record here my gratitude to him for his invaluable assistance. I also thank L. S. V. Venables and the other members of the party for their assistance with some of the observations, and help in catching the birds. T. W. J. Taylor is responsible for the botanical identifications in Section III, and some of the habitat photographs. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.