388 REVIEW OF JAPANESE BIRDS. 



1870.— ^githalus covsohiwns Swinhoe, P. Z. S., 1870, p. 133.— Seebohm, Ibis, 1879, 

 p. 33. — Id., ibid., 1884, p. 37. — Blakist. & Pryer, Tr, As. Soc. Jap., viii, 

 1860, p. 2li:.—Id., ibid., x, 18S2, p. 15'2.— Blakist., Amend. List B. Jap., 

 pp. 26 and 51. 



The only birds of this species yet taken in Japan, so far as I am 

 aware, are the tbree specimens which were collected by Mr. F. Einger 

 at Nagasaki, in February, 1877, two of which are now before me, viz, 

 the same two, to which Seebohm's remarks, in Ibis, 1884, p. 37, refer..* 

 In regard to the third one, we have the assurance that it is a male, 

 "identical" with the male of our collection (cf. Biakiston, Ibis, 1879, 

 p. 33), and " that it agrees exactly with the type [of JE. consobrinus] in 

 the Swinhoe collection from China" (Seebohm, /. c). This specimen is 

 now, probabh", in Mr. Seebohm's collection. 



The history of the present species is yet involved in considerable 

 doubt. It was originally described by Swinhoe, in 1870, from Chinese 

 examples. Seebohm, in 1879, doubted not only its specific validity, 

 but even its subspecific distinctness, and was inclined to pronounce the 

 skin from Jg^pan and Swinhoe's type of ^. consobrinus to be females, 

 or not fully adult males, of ^. pendulinus, "as thej' are scarcely to be 

 distinguished from a skin of a female in my collection from Asia Minor, 

 and another from Piedmont, in Dresser's collection ; " Dr. Gadow, in 

 1883 (Cat. B. Brit. Mus., viii, p. 67), makes it an unconditional synonym 

 of B, pendnlinaj but, in 1881, Mr. Seebohm recedes from his former 

 position, after having seen the specimens now before me, and states that 

 they "appear to prove that this species * * • is a good one." 



The Penduline Tit has a winter plumage considerably different from 

 the summer dress, but, like the other members of the family, the molt 

 is simple, taking place during the autumn. The different appearance of 

 the breeding plumage, therefore, is caused by the buff-colored margins of 

 the autumnal dress dropping off", thereby exposing the more basal por- 

 tion of the feather ; consequently, if this portion is colored differently 

 from the margins, the plumage will change color accordingly. 



When, therefore, in the European species, the buffy margins drop off 

 in spring, the whole upper side of the head becomes nearly pure white, 

 the whole upper back changes to a rich rusty chestnut brown, and the 

 breast becomes marked with chestnut. In the eastern birds the changes 

 will be less, because the feathers of the back, except a narrow chestnut 

 collar, and those of the breast, are uniformly colored, the former darker, 

 the latter lighter, ochraceous, and as the centers of the feathers covering 

 the crown and hind neck are ashy gray, these parts in spring will as- 

 sume the last-mentioned color. 



If Swinhoe's Chinese type and Blakiston's two males are correctly 

 sexed, the eastern birds are still more different from the European species, 

 for the black ear-patch is much smaller, the black frontal baud much nar- 

 rower, the chestnut spot on the forehead quite absent; the superciliaof iJ. 



* These are also the same birds to which Messrs. Biakiston and Pryer refer (Tr. As. 

 Soc. Jap., X, 1832, p. 152) as being in the Hakodadi Museum. 



