410 BIRDS OF THE LIU KIU ISLANDS. 



Pericrocotus tegimae Stejxeger. 



Mr. Tasaki has presented to the Tokio Educational Museum another 

 specimen of this very distinct species, which he collected in the "north- 

 ern part of Liu Kiu," and Mr. Pryer informs me that he has other speci- 

 mens from the same islands. Mr. Tasaki's specimens agree very well 

 with the type specimens and substantiates all the diagnostic charac 

 ters given in the original description (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 188C, pp 

 048-650), except that the light spots on some of the remiges which form 

 the speculum are not pure white, but strongly suffused with buff. 



The specimen is not sexed, but having tlie to)) of the head glossy 

 bluish black, it is probably a male, a supposition strengtliened by the 

 dimensions, which are as follows : Wing, ST'""'; tail-feathers, 99'""^; ex- 

 posed cul men, i2'"'"; tarsus, lo"^"*; middle toe, with claw, IS™"". 



Lanius sp. ? 



Mr. H. Pryer informs me that his collector in Liu Kiu obtained a 

 Lanius, the species of which he has not identified. 



Parus minor commixtus (Swixh.). 

 1668.—Paruscommixtus SwixnOE, Ibia, 1868, p. 63. 

 1869. — Parus commixtus Gray, Haiid-1. B., p. '231. 



1887. — Parus minor Seebohm, Ibis, 1387, p. 170. — Stejneger, Zeitschr. Ges. Orn., 

 1887, p. — . 



The specimen sent adds a new form to the Japanese avifauna. As 

 the name indicates it is most nearly related to Parus minor of Japan 

 ])roper, but it is easily distinguished by having the back gray with only 

 a tinge of green on the interscapular region, and by the absence of the 

 olive-butt" tinge on the flanks so conspicuous in the typical form. 



We have before us specimens from Southern China, whence came 

 the type of Swinhoe's P. commixtus, which agrees with the Liu Kiu 

 Island bird. Some of the South China examples, possibly most of 

 them, have the green nearly entirely absent, and hence they have been 

 referred to P. cinercus or nlpalensis from India, and in my previous 

 l)aper on the Japanese Paridce I expressed the same opinion. However, 

 having since then received two more examples of the Indian bird, I 

 lind by careful examination that the true P. nipalensis ditt'ers quite con- 

 siderably from the Chinese and Japanese birds in the extent of the 

 white on the second pair of tail-feathers. In the three Indian birds 

 before me the white on the second pair occu[)ies nearly the entire outer 

 web besides about half of the inner one, while in the Chinese and 

 Japanese birds (as well as in about half a dozen specimens from Korea 

 which Mr. Jouy most liberally allowed me to examine) the white on this 

 feather is restricted to a small wedge-shaped terminal spot. Only in 

 one of these specimens (U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 91808) is this wedge of any 

 greater extent, nearly 25'""' long in one rectrix, but it is confined to the 

 inner web, and being considerably smaller on the feather of the other 

 side it is apparently only an individual abnormality. I will not deny 



