( 131 ) 



NOTES ON PALAEAECTIC BIRDS AND ALLIED FORMS. 



By ERNST HAIITERT. 



THESE notes, which I hope to be able to continue at some futnre time, are only 

 in a few cases intended to settle questions finally — as far as this is possible at 

 all. They contain suggestions for future work. They will, I hope, show that a 

 great deal remains yet to be done in Palaearctic, and even European, ornithology. 

 Some of these notes are chiefly intended for British ornithologists, because it seems 

 that many of our friends on this side of the Chaunel have not lately paid the same 

 attention to the interesting geograj)hical subspecies of our birds wliich a number of 

 Continental ornithologists have recently bestowed on them. Very few species of 

 European birds are so thoroughly studied in ccenj direction that nothing remains to 

 be found out, to be- corrected, to be modified, or to be completed, may it be in their 

 distribution, their local subspecies, their nidification, their habits, their food, their 

 nomenclature and classification, or their anatomy and structure. This may be keenly 

 admitted, notwithstanding all the admirable works written on European ornith- 

 ology, from Naumann and Macgillivray, from the commencement of Dresser's great 

 work and others, up to our days, when we find " observers " and egg-collectors 

 everywhere, but very few collectors of skins ! Or can any one deny the truth of my 

 statement, if he bears in mind that British ornithologists have not hitherto under- 

 stood the different forms of the nut-crackers and tree-creepers, if in a recent meeting 

 of the B. 0. C. there were different opinions about the tree-creepers having a song 

 or not, if widely diti'erent opinions are dilated on about the question whether 

 a bird can or cannot alter its colour without a moult ? On the other hand, I must 

 also admit that often (piestions about the habits and notes of birds would not be 

 discussed if the opponents had read what Naumann wrote on the question. jMany 

 "peculiarities'" of habits, migration, different colorations and pro]iortions would 

 be explained if the local forms of birds were more accurately studied ; but this mnst 

 chiefly be done in their breeding-places, not on migration, when the birds are far 

 away from their often unknown homes. If we know the differences between all the 

 local forms, then we shall often be able to say whence a bird shot on migration 

 came, but otherwise not. What is chiefly wanting, even in the largest collections, 

 is a good material of skins from ull the dift'erent countries. Without good series 

 from all the diffei-iint localities, the (questions of the various subspecies cannot be 

 settled. 



The Genus NUOIFRAGA. 



Although some of the old authors had already recognised differences in the bills 

 of the European nut-crackers, ('. L. Brehm was the first to clearly distiuauish 

 between the stout-billed and the slender-billed form, and to give names to them. 

 He named them Sucifnuja brachi/fhi/nrhos and Naci/raya macrorliynchos, in 1»^3. 

 Very little attention has generally been paid to these forms for a long time after, 

 and one of the reasons for this is, I believe, the bewildering number of names 

 afterwards bestowed on nut-crackers by C. L. Brehm, who, in addition to his 

 X. brachorliijnchos and N. inacrorhi/nrhos, subsequently nami'd a S. platyrliynchos., 



