1887.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 391 



FURTHER CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE AVIFAUNA OF THE LIU KIU 

 ISLANDS, JAPAN, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES. 



(Plates xxi, sxii.) 



The authorities of the Tokio Edacatioual Museum have again shown 

 their zeal iu promotiug our knowledge of the natural history of Japan. 

 Mr. M. Namiye forwarded to me for inspection additional specimens 

 from Okinawa Shima, collected bj' him during his short stay there in 

 March, 188G (see Proceedings U. S. Xat. Mus., 1S8G, p. G34). Shortly 

 afterwards I received from the same source two more lots of birds pre- 

 sented to the Tokio Educational Museum, one collected by Mr. C. Tasaki 

 in the northern part of Liu Kiu, presumably Okinawa Shima, the other 

 by Mr. J. Nishi on Yayeyama Island, " Okinawa prefecture." For the 

 privilege of examining these interesting collections I wish to express 

 my best acknowledguients. It should also be mentioned that a set of 

 duplicates have been most liberally presented to our museum. 



I am also obliged to Mr. H. Pryer for an annotated list of Liu Kiu 

 birds obtained by his collector during December and January. Great 

 praise is due to Mr. Pryer for his untiring labors in the interest of the 

 Japanese fauna, and his researches in the Liu Kiu Islands have been 

 rewarded by the discovery of some fine new species, for instance, the 

 remarkable "Pic'?(,s" noguchii. It will also be seen that several of the 

 additions to the Liu Kiu avifauna contained in the following paper are 

 due to Mr. Pryer's efforts. 



Hassenstein's excellent atlas of Japan, still in course of publication, 

 has no island named Yayeyama. Mr. S. Watase, an accomplished 

 Japanese student at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., 

 however, has had the kindness to examine the charts issued by the 

 Hydrographic Bureau of the Japanese Navy and to furnish me with the 

 following remarks: 



"This name is not given to any vsingle island, but to a group of islands. 

 Near the southernmost extremity of the Liu Kiu Islands chain, lying 

 between the parallels 24° and 25° north, you will find two large islands, 

 Iriomate-Shima and Ishigaki-Shima, surrounded by several other of 

 minor dimensions. To this compact group of islands is given the name 

 of Yayeyama." 



The Yayeyama Islands are, consequently, the western group of the 

 archipelago usually called Nambu k ioto, or the Southern Liu Kiu Group, 

 also often styled the Miyako Islands, a name properly belonging to a 

 single island, Miyako-Shima, situated a little east of the above-men- 

 tioned ones. These islands are very mountainous and rocky, as the 

 name Yayeyama implies, Ishigaki-Shima reaching a height of 460 me- 

 ters and Iriomate-Shima about 600 meters. On the latter island (Has- 



