Errata: The Systematic Status of Cranioleuca furcata Taczanowski (Furnariidae)

to capture prey that a mockingbird would steal in preference to eating the centipede itself. Only on those rare occasions when a mockingbird meets a large centipede does kleptoparasitism become a potentially profitable alternative to predation. Not only are large centipedes capable of capturing prey worth stealing, but they are also difficult to eat; mockingbirds can break off and eat the legs of large centipedes, but are seldom able to kill them. 4) Interaction with large centipedes may be risky. Though mockingbirds readily eat even very large centipedes that are dead, they are exceedingly cautious when attacking large living centipedes. In contrast, I saw Short-eared Owls (Asioflammeus) and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons (Nyctanassa violuceu) eat large centipedes without hesitation. At least four banded mockingbirds in the Genovesa study area may have been killed by centipedes; I found their intact carcasses in the same kinds of crevices where I most often saw centipedes and where the incident described above took place. (Owls are the only other significant predator of mockingbirds on Genovesa and they usually dismember their kills.) Individual N. parvulus weigh roughly 50 g; the largest centipede I measured on Genovesa was roughly 30 cm long and weighed 23 g. Smaller Scolopendru centipedes in other regions-can kill mice and small birds (Cloudslev-Thomnson 1958) and GalSnaaos residents claim that Scolipendru &upugu~u can kill small dogs; they can also inflict a painful bite that produces severe swelling in humans (B. Bamett, pers. comm.). A mockingbird may risk its life if it interacts with a large centipede even if its goal is kleptoparasitism rather than predation. I suggest that risk of injury or death, combined with rarity of encounters between mockingbirds and centipedes that are too large to eat, prevents kleptoparasitism of centipedes by Galgpagos mockingbirds from becoming more common. I thank Superintendent Miguel Cifuentes and the Galfipagos National Park Service for permission to conduct this research. The Charles Darwin Research Station helped with logistics. Financial support was provided by the World Wildlife Fund-U.S.. the Frank M. ChaDman Memorial Fund, the Universiiy of Michigan, and aNatural Science and Engineering Research Council ofcanada postgraduate scholarship. I carried out my research in conjunction with P. R. Grant’s studies of Galapagos land birds, and I thank him and his coworkers for advice and assistance during all phases of my project.