■WATER-BIRDS OF JAPAN. 

 Br T. \%\ BI.AKISTOIV. 



If for no other reason, the publication in Bulletin No. 29 of the United 

 States National Museum (Washington, 1885), of Mr. Stejueger's careful 

 study of the birds of Kamtschatka and the adjacent Commander Islands, 

 demands a further revision of the Japan list,* especially among the 

 water-birds, so many of which are common to the two countries. With- 

 out any desire to anticipate Mr. Stejueger in those valuable contribu- 

 tions to the ornithology of Japan that he is now engaged upon, and 

 which are apjjearing in successive papers in the Proceedings of the 

 United States National Museum, entitled "Review of Japanese Birds,"t 

 it is, on the contrary, with his full concurrence and assistance that the 

 present list and notes are given, with a view perhaps as much to exhibit 

 the deficiencies in our information, and thereby draw the attention of 

 working ornithologists in Japan to questions which can only be solved 

 through their exertions, as to bring up to date our positive knowledge 

 on the subject. 



Of the two tables here given, the first includes all the water-birds of 

 Japan, embracing the Kurils, Bonins, and other outlying islands, so far 

 as at present known. The total, inclusive of some doubtful records, is 

 94, of wbich about one-third are fresh- water species. The table has 

 been, arranged in four columns, in order to exhibit at a glance the 

 geographical regions to which the birds belong, or rather their range; 

 those under circumpolar being common to both the Atlantic and 

 Pacific Oceans, or the Eurasian and American continents j palaearctic, 

 being found on both sides, or extending across the Old World ; Eastern 

 Asiatic, confined to the eastern part of that continent ; and Pacific, such 

 as occur on both the eastern and western shores of that ocean, but not 

 elsewhere. 



While Japan exhibits a fair share in the water-birds which range 

 around the arctic and north-temperate region, as shown in the first 

 column, those belonging to the Eurasian continent and its waters, which 

 the second and third columns taken together embrace, outnumber by 

 one-half such as reach the American v^ontinent enumerated in the fourth 

 column. This, from the position of the Japan Islands, is what might 

 have been exj)ected when fresh-water and marine species are taken 

 together ; but when a separation is made it will be found that this pre- 

 ponderance is due entirely to the great proportion of fluviatile or fresh- 



* See (1) Catalogue of the Birds of Japan, Ibis, 1878 ; (2) Catalogue of the Birds of 

 Japan, Trans. As. Soe. Japan, viii, 1880 ; (3) Catalogue of the Birds of Japan, Trans. 

 As. Soe., Japan, x, 1882; (4) Amended List of the Birds of Japan, London, January, 

 1884. 



t Sec. 1, The Woodpeckers, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1886, p. 99, et seq. 

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