122 



REVIEW OF JAPANESE BIRDS. 



"White with black cross-bars, the streaks ou the flanks and breast are 

 fewer and more indistinct, and the brown patches ou the sides of the 

 breast are scarcely more than indicated. There can, I think, be no 

 doubt but what these may be safely regarded as typical T. seehohmi. 



1 will now call attention to the four autumnal specimens, from Tate 

 Yama, on the IMiddle Island. Being collected at precisely the same 

 season as the Yesso birds, they offer all desirable advantages for a fair 

 comparison. It will be found at once that the two groups are readily 

 distinguished by essentially the same characters which separate I". 

 seehohmi and Y. Icizuhi. The Tate Yama birds are browner on head and 

 neck ; the lateral breast-patches are large and well defined, the streak- 

 ing is dense and dark, the white marks on back and wing are narrower. 

 In other words, taking the seasonal difference into consideration, the 

 Tate Yama specimens essentially conform with the Fuji Yama bird 

 which we have referred to Y. MzuJci proper. The only appreciable dif- 

 ference I can detect by a minute examination is that the white bands 

 on the wings and tail in the four specimens is a trifle (perhaps 0.3""") 

 broader than in theiepecimens alluded to. 



To sum up, I find the Yesso bird, Y. seehohmi as here restricted, 

 quite different and easily separable from its southern representative, 

 and that the form which inhabits the Middle Island is inseparable from 

 the Nagasaki bird. I will not deny the possibility that a larger series 

 from the latter locality may show it to be slightly different from the bird 

 of the Middle Island, northeast of the line O wari-Tsurnga, but it is plain 

 to me that the birds south of " Blakiston's Line" are more different from 

 the Yesso bird than are Yokohama and Nagasaki specimens from each 

 other. 



From the above it is evident that the Pygmy Woodi)eckers of Japan 

 form no exception to the general rule of geographical distribution and 

 local differentiation in those islands. "Blakiston's Line" is also in this 

 instance the dividing line which separates the representative forms, 

 whether they immigrated from the south and from the north into the 

 Japanese Empire as already distinct species, or they differentiated in 

 the islands after having spread over the archipelago by one of these 

 routes alone. 



Measurements. 



