110 JfORTHERX PAL.EARCTIC BLLLFINCHES. 



the pliiiuage seems, however, more common in the Japanese than in the 

 European birds, and is carried to such an extreme that in ifos. 1 and 

 2 of my table it also invades the white of the rump with a most delicate 

 tinge of light rosy pink. 



No. 1 is even more remarkable, for in this the excess of red color goes 

 so far as to break down a character which has always been relied upon 

 as distinctive of the Japanese species, viz, the absence of red on the 

 inner tertial. In this bird the red spot on this feather is very distinct 

 and large, and even the large upper wing-coverts are edged exteriorly 



■with red. 



Pyrrhula kurilensis Sharpe. 



ISoO.—Pyrrhula orkntaJis'SliDDEyDORFF,M6m. Acail. Imp. St. Petersb. Sc. Nat., VIII. 



p. 124. — SwiNHOE, Ibis, 1874, p. 463. — Blakist. & Pryeu, Tr. As. Soc. 



Jap., X, 1882, p. 176 (part). 

 1887.— Pyrrhula kurilensis Shaupe, fide Seebobin, Ibis, 1687, p. 101. 

 It87. — Pyrrhula orieniaUs kurilensis Seebohm, Ibis, 1887, p. 101. 



No specimen of this, the latest discovery among the Pyrrhida% has 

 yet come under ray observation, but I am indebted to Mr. E. B. Sharpe 

 for the following account of this species, or subspecies, which he had 

 the kindness to communicate to me in a letter dated November 12, 

 1886: 



'■^ Adult male. — Similar to P. orientalis^hnt much paler in color, being- 

 pale ashy-brown above, instead of blue-gray, and pale drab-brown be- 

 low, instead of bluish gray, but faintly tinged with rosy on the breast. 

 Total length, 5.3 inches [135"'"'] ; culmen, 0.45 [11.5] ; wing, 3.5 [89] ;tail, 

 2.6 [66] ; tarsus, 0.7 [18]. 



'''■Adult female. — Not to be distinguished from the female of P. orien- 

 talis. Total length, 6 inches [152'""'] ; culmen, 0.4 [10] ; wing, 3.25 [83] ; 

 tail, 2.45 [62] -, tarsus, 0.7 [18] {Mus. H. Seebohm). 



" We have a male from the Kurile Islands and Seebohme has a pair 

 collected by Wossnessensky." 



Wossnessenski, according to Middendorff, found the Bullfinch on 

 Urup during May and August, and according to Blakiston and Pryer 

 it is " very numerous on Eturop in September." It may be looked for 

 in Yezo during the winter months.* 



» In order to bring the subject up to date (of proof correction) I may add, that Mr. 

 Seebohm in his article in the Ibis, 1887, p. 101, has separated an eastern form of P. 

 cineracea as P. c. pallida. It is distinguished by having the wing-band gray, the sides 

 of the head almost white, and by being paler on the under parts generally. This 

 form hails from the Altai Mountains and from the valley of the Ussuri. 



