1887.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 127 



characteristic feature of ^. pyrrkothorux, we feel safe iu asserting that 

 we have not misideutified our speciiueus so far. 



But it should at ouce be stated, that iu regard to the facial or froutal 

 marks not two of the specimens at hand'are exactly alike, and to illus- 

 trate these euormous variations some of the extremes and intermediate 

 forms are figured on the accompanying plate. It ranges from an almost 

 black forehead (Stiru) to an almost white one, aud all of these speci- 

 mens are killed between March and May. No. 85779, a male from Yoko- 

 hama, is a typical pyrrhotliorax so far as the forehead is concerned, for 

 it seems that not even the most extreme specimens are quite without a 

 trace of white; at least, those of Dr. Blasius are not, but through No. 

 92778, which has a little more white, and No. 95940, iu which the white 

 spots are still somewhat larger, it grades insensibly into the other ex- 

 treme, a female from Bering Island (No. 89052, May 11), with but a few 

 dusky spots at the border of the white (pi. vii, figs. 3-6). 



Dr. Blasius asserts that iu 'pyrrhotliorax he has found "some white, or 

 at least hoary (greise), feathers behind the dark, nearly blackish brown, 

 forehead forming a light transverse line fading gradually backwards 

 over the crown, which is tinged with hoary." Now, in the Yokohama 

 male, the black extreme, this post frontal light line is appreciable, but 

 it is not hoary ; on the contrary it is strongly tinged with rusty and so 

 is the whole fore-part of the crown and the light line bordering the 

 orbits above and behind. The Japanese female, however, No. 91584, has 

 these parts mixed hoary and pale rusty, while in No. 92779 they are en- 

 tirely hoary and more or less so in several other specimens. Dr. Blasius 

 quotes his father's diagnosis of the true mongola, iu which the latter 

 speaks of the white of the forehead being continuous with the " white 

 stripe over the eyes," asserting that in his specimens he found the dis- 

 tinguishing features quoted "sharj^ly pronounced." In nearly all my 

 specimens the light stripe over the eyes is strongly tinged with fer- 

 ruginous, and the only specimen having the posterior half of it dis- 

 tinctly white is the female from Japan, but even in this the portion 

 along the crown and occii^ut is rusty. Dr. Blasius also lays consider- 

 able stress on the fact that iu the three specimens, by him held to be 

 pyrrhotliorax the grayish brown of the occiput is sharply separated 

 from that of the back by a " light rusty cervical band about I*'™ wide." 

 So it is iu our Yokohama male (mounted); in the Kurile specimen (a 

 skin w^ith the neck very much stretched) it is nearly IS"^"* wide, but 

 of a lighter shade; iu the other males it is also present, though some- 

 what narrower, hut this circumstance is simply due to the fact thatinmalc. 

 ing the sMn the neck has been drawn in; in most of the females this cer- 

 vical band is only faintly indicated, or entirely absent as in the one 

 from Japan. 



The above analysis proves conclusively that the frontal and cervical 

 marks are subject to an almost indefinite variation, and I have no hesi- 

 tation in saying that no distinction of the two alleged species can be 

 based upon the color marks of the head. 



