1888.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 427 



region, viz, iu the forests of Asia, from Karatschatka and Japan west 

 to the Ural Mountains and the governments of Perm and Vologda in 

 European Russia." 



Mr. Henry Seebohm, in a paper "On the Arctic Form of the Nut- 

 cracker,"* has lately taken issue with Dr. R. Blasius in regard to the 

 alleged distribution of the two forms, though agreeing with him in the 

 general result, viz, the distinctness of the forms and the migrant into 

 northern Europe being the slender-billed Siberian race. He contends 

 that " there is not an Eastern and a Western form, * * * but an arctic 

 and a temperate form. * * * The Siberian form appears sometimes 

 to winter in north China as well as in southern and western Europe, 

 but the Japanese form appears to be a resident, and to be, to all intents 

 aud purposes, identical with the resident form of Europe. The white 

 spots, both on the upper and under parts aud on the end of the tail- 

 feathers, are rather more developed in the Japanese birds than in the 

 resident European ones, but not so much so as in examples from Siberia." 



My material is not sufficient to solve the puzzle entirely, but I think 

 it is large enough to show that Mr. Seebohm's theory is not well 

 founded. But before examining my material I must, from a general 

 stand-point, protest against the terms "arctic form" and "temperate 

 form," used by Mr. Seebohm. In the first place, the Nutcracker is not 

 an " arctic." bird. In Europe it occurs, more or less, stationary from 

 Spain (roughly, 42° north latitude f) to northern Norway (about 64° 

 north latitude). Iu northwestern Russia the typical form hardly extends 

 so far north, while farther east the slender-billed race is not known to 

 occur north of 62° north latitude, aud the southern limit of its breeding 

 range in the Ural seems to be about 62° north latitude.^ Iu Asia the 

 latter has been found by Mr. Seebohm himself in the valley of the Yenisej 

 as far north as 67°, though farther east it hardly exceeds the sixty- fourth 

 degree of latitude. The southern limit of its breeding range in western 

 Asia seems to be the Tian-Shan,§ consequently about 40° north latitude, 

 while in the extreme East slender-billed birds have been found iu sum- 

 mer at least as far south as 38° north latitude. It will be seen that the 

 distribution of the Siberian form, on the whole, is not more arctic than 

 its western representative, if we regard the latitudes alone. But the 

 adjectives arctic, for the former, and temperate, for the latter, are not 

 better founded if, by such a nomenclature, we would indicate the rela- 

 tive distribution of the two forms where their ranges meet, for there is 



*Ibis, 1888, pp. 23G-241. 



t Blasius, as quoted above, states that it breeds in the Pyrenees, but according to 

 Dr. Coinpanyo, in Dresser's Birds of Europe, iv, p. 45S, it is only a rare bird in the 

 eastern Pyrenees, while Ar6valo y Baca (Aves de Espaiia, Madrid, 1887, p. 

 expressly says that it occurs only accidentally in Spain. In Italy, according to 

 Gigioli (Avif. Ital., 1886, p. 13) aud Salvadori (Ucc. Ital., 1887, p. ISO) the Nutcracker 

 is stationary only in the Alps. 



tNazarow, Rech. Zool. Steppes Kirguiz, 1886, p. 31. 



ftZeverzow, Journ. f. Orn., 1875, p. 172. 



