118 EEVIEW OF JAPANESE BIRDS. 



the restriction of the white color on other parts, has more white on the 

 back than its Japanese relative, of. Mr. Gould's expression : " Center 

 of the back white, crossed with irregular rays of black, as in Picus Icu- 

 conotus.'''' The red on the lower parts seems also to bo more restricted 

 and paler in the Formosa bird. 



As to the curious distribution of these bird on the Japanese islands, 

 two distinct forms of the same superspecies inhabiting the same island, 

 I may remark that not only is there a marked difference between the 

 ornis of Yesso and that part of the empire lying south of the Tsugaru 

 Strait, or §lakiston's line, as it is deservedly called in zoogeographical 

 parlance, the former belonging to Siberia, the latter to the Manchurian 

 region ; but the ornis of Nagasaki shows a considerable difference from 

 that of those parts of the central portion of Hondo, or the Middle Island, 

 with the fauna of which we are acquainted. 



The ornis of the southwestern parts of Hondo, especially the circuits 

 of Gokinai, Sanindo, and Sanyodo, and of the Ishind of Shikoku, is very 

 little known, and it is hardly possible yet to say with certainty whether 

 it agrees most closely with that of Kiusiu, or with that of the central 

 part of Hondo. The present species, the type of which was taken in 

 Yamato, seems to indicate the southern character of the ornis of the 

 country south and west of a line between the bays of Owari and Tsu- 

 ruga, which has been ascertained to be the "line of demarkatiou" in re- 

 spect to coleoptera (c/. Blak. & Pryer, Tr. As. Soc. Jap., x, 1882, p. 145), 

 and it would not be surprising at all if this line also limits the distri- 

 bution of certain local specializations of birds or immigrants from the 

 south. It may be, however, that the region thus set off will have to 



TPhite, crossed with irregular rays of black, as in Picus leuconotus ; wings black, 

 spotted with white in both webs of the feathers, as in that species ; outer tail-feathers 

 alternately barred with black and white; bill bluish horn-color; tarsi and feet lead- 

 color. 



" Total length, 9J inches ; bill, 1| ; wing, 5| ; tail, 3^ ; tarsi, f. 



" Female like the male in every resj)ect except in having a black instead of a red 

 crown." 



Messrs. Cabanis and Heine describe a young male (Mns. Hein., iv, ii, p. 38) as 

 having the whole ci'owu varied of black and red ; the postauricular black stripe 

 separating the ear-patch and the lateral neck-patch ; the featbers of the lower back 

 broadly tipped with white ; the feathers of the abdomen and crissum only faintly 

 tinged with red (" plumis * * * ventris pallide et subobsolete subrosaceo tinctis, crisso 

 anguste pallide rosaceo, miniato, carmineo"); the six middle rectrices uniform black, 

 etc. 



In view of these descriptions, which are based upon siiecimeus, and which i)lainly 

 indicate a whitish spot on the side of the neck, Sundevall's assertion (Consp. Picin., 

 p. 24), that the jugular streak is indistinct and confluent with the black of the nape, 

 the sides of the neck thus being totally black (" linea ordinaria nigra ad latera juguli 

 non districta, sed cum nigredine cervicis confluens, nude latera colli tota nigra") 

 seems inexplicable. 



The measurements given by Cabanis and Heine (and from them Sundevall ?) are con- 

 siderably smaller than those of Gould, being, total length, 8 f 2 inches; cnlmen, 1; 

 wing, 4f; tail, 3; tarsi ^ (Sundevall: wing, l'^.')'""'). 



I 



