642 BIRDS FROM LIU KIU ISLANDS, JAPAN. 



Motacilla melanope Pall. 



A male of this species collected at Napa, March 9, 1886, differs in no way 

 from other Japanese specimens except in having a rather strong wash 

 of green on the interscapilium. The throat is mixed white and black, 

 the feathers of the latter color still partly in their sheaths. The tail- 

 feathers are also moulting. 



Total length, lOO™"" ; stretch of wings, 260'""^ (according to the label). 

 Wing, SS"'"; exposed culmen, 12°^™ j tarsus, 21"^'"; middle toe, with 

 claw, 18"°'. 



Hypsipetes pryeri, sp. n. 



DiAGN. — Similar to H. amaurotis Temm., but somewhat smaller, with 

 a broad (about 12™™.) collar of burnt umber brown across the throat, 

 uniting the ear-patches, and with the gray of the under parts replaced 

 by raw umber ; top of head darker, and rest of upper surface more oliva- 

 ceous. 



Type. — 9 collected by M. Namiye at Napa, Okiuawa Shima, March 

 8, 1886. 



Habitat. — Okinawa Shima, Liu Kiu Islands, Japan. 



This new species, which 1 take a pleasure in dedicating to Mr. Pryer 

 in recognition of his meritorious work in Japanese ornithology, is quite 

 distinct from the common Brown-eared Bulbul of Japan, and may at 

 once be distinguished from this species by the characters given in the 

 above diagnosis. 



In some respects it comes nearer to the Bonin Shima bird, S. squami- 

 ceps KiTTL., which sometimes, though, as shown by Dr. A. B. Meyer 

 (Zeitsch. Gea. Ornith., I, 1884, p. 211), quite erroneously, has been con- 

 sidered identical with the common Japanese bird. Dr. Meyer is not 

 correct, however, when asserting that the latter is materially inferior 

 in general size, for, as shown by the table of dimensions given below, 

 the average size of S. amaurotis is considerably larger than the meas- 

 urements given by him. Unfortunately the only specimen of the Bonin 

 bird at my command is in a very poor condition, but then there are two 

 good plates by Kittlitz, and the comparative description by Dr. Meyer, 

 quoted above, which will assist us in pointing out the features by which 

 it differs from H. amaurotis proper and from H. pryeri. 



It is then evident, both from Dr. Meyer's measurements and my own, 

 that H. squamiceps has a comparatively longer tarsus than either of the 

 two other species; it furthermore jiossesses a broad dusky pectoral 

 band, very well represented in the original figure (M6m. Sav. Etr., I, 

 pi. xvi), and by Dr. Meyer described as a " broad blackish pectoral band 

 not quite continuous in the middle." In having the throat, fore neck, 

 and other under parts brown, and not gray, H. squamiceps agrees with 

 H. pryeri, but judging from my specimen of the former, this brownish 

 color is of a different tint, less yellowish than in the latter species. 



In additioij, I should remark that it may later on be expedient to 

 recognize the individuals breeding in Yesso as a distinct race, charac- 



