100 REVIEW OF JAPANESE BIRDS. 



Swinhoe, however, inauy important forms being overlooked or misunde; 

 stood, and it is but fair to state that Mr. Blakiston himself was aware 

 of many of these distinctions, neglected by the British ornithologist, 

 as sufficient!}' proved by numerous notes in his manuscripts. He has 

 also hinted at the line Owari-Tsuruga being a dividing line separatini: 

 off zoogeographically the southwestern part of Hondo, but this is as 

 yet a hypothesis, the collections from the portion of Hondo in question, 

 which have reached ornithologists, being too small and sporadical to 

 allow of any sure conclusions. 



A careful comj^arison of the Blakiston collection, which consists 

 chiefly of specimens from Yesso, with the fine collections from the 

 central part of Hondo, sent home by Mr. P. L. Jouy, has made it 

 clear to me that there is a much greater diversity between the birds 

 from the different parts of Japan than has hitherto been supposed. 

 But in such a case it is necessary that large series of birds from all 

 parts of the country be brouglit together before its ornis can be 

 satisfactorily treated of. Notwithstanding the excellent wo^^k done so 

 far, our knowledge of Japanese ornithology is only fragmentary, for 

 not only are the northern and southwestern parts of Hondo, as well 

 as the large island of Shikoku, nearly unexplored, but the entii^e 

 western slope of Hondo, that is, the whole portion of it which faces the 

 Sea of Japan, is a complete terra incognita, oruithologically speaking. 

 If we take into consideration the great difference in the climate between 

 the eastern and the western shore of this great island, we must concede 

 that we have no right to conclude that a species also occurs on the 

 western side, opposite the locality where it has been collected on the 

 eastern shore. 



American ornithologists will not wonder at hearing that species apt to 

 break up into local forms have done so in a grouj) of islands which in 

 extent corresponds to the coast from the Gulf of California to \^ancouver 

 Island, or from the southern extremity of Florida to ISTova Scotia, with a 

 variation of cliniate fully as great as that of the two la.st mentioned 

 localities ; with high mountain ranges, and studded with volcanoes 

 eight thousand to twelve thousand feet high; with a vegetation "one of 

 the richest and most varied on the globe," characterized in the south 

 by the bamboo, the rice, the mulberry tree, and the tea-plant, while in the 

 north the firs form extensive forests, and with "a temi)erature ranging 

 from the almost Siberian winters of Yesso to the tro]>ical heats of Kiu- 

 Shiu," it would indeed be an extraordinary phenomenon, and quite re- 

 verse to what takes place in other countries of similarly varying condi- 

 tions, were the birds of Japan uniform all through that empire. 



The trinoniinal f ystem of nomenclature cannot be applied in most 

 cases, inasmuch as the intermediate localities are as yet unexplored, 

 and may yield intermediate forms. It is my principle to admit triuomi 

 nals only where intergradation is unquestionable, and, hence, for the 

 present, I chiefly api)ly binominals. As to the necessity of distinguish- 



