430 REVIEW OF JAPANESE BIRDS. 



Nos. 30, 31), but its shape is normal, and differs in that respect from 

 the resident Scandinavian birds as much as any one in the series. The 

 Puji-Tama bird, found breeding near the extreme southern range of the 

 species, differs only in having the bill shorter than any other specimen 

 in the series. The shape, however, is that of 2V. macrorhynchos, and the 

 white on the tail is almost up to the average, as established by Blasius, 

 or 3""" wider than the maximum of any specimen by him referred to the 

 typical thick-billed form. That the shortness of the bill is no argument 

 against referring this Japanese specimen to the Siberian form is very 

 plain, from the fact that it is nearly identical with a Yenisej specimen 

 collected by Mr. Seebohm himself (No. 176 of his collection, fide Blasius, 

 Ornis, 1886, p. 172, extra p. 36, No. 8).* 



My material, therefore, contradicts Mr. Seebohm's suggestion that 

 the resident bird of Japan is, "to all intents and purposes, identical with 

 the resident form of Europe." On the contrary, it is evident to me that 

 it is, to all intents and purposes, identical with the Siberian, or the slen- 

 der-billed form N. c. macrorhynchos. 



The very meager details in regard to his specimens, which Mr. See- 

 bohm furnishes in his article, do not support his own conclusion that 

 "the white spots * * * on the ends of the tail-feathers are * * * 

 not so much [developed] as in examples from Siberia;" for he himself 

 gives the white on tail as varying between 0.9 and 1.1 inch in the Jap- 

 anese birds, against a variation of from 0.8 to 1.25 inch in Siberian and 

 Chinese specimens and presumed European migrants, consequently 

 nearly coinciding with the limits established for the latter. 



1 am, therefore, forced to conclude that Dr. B. Blasius and Y. von 

 Tschusi-Schmidhoffen are right in distinguishing between an eastern 

 and a western race, and that Mr. Seebohm is wrong in assuming the 

 existence of an arctic and a temperate form of the Nutcracker. 



Before closing 1 would say, however, that I will not deny the possi- 

 bility of a large series of Japanese birds showing a somewhat shorter 

 bill, on the average, than continental Asiatic specimens; but I will vent- 

 ure to say that the difference in size and shape will not be so great as 

 it is between resident birds from Scandinavia and southern Europe, 

 and 1 do not think that the differences will ever prove tangible or con- 

 stant enough to allow a further subdivision of this species. Blasius and 

 von Tschusi have made it pretty plain that the differences in size and 

 shape of bill in the two subspecies recognized are due to the difference 

 in the food, the nut of the Siberian form of Pinus cembra having a thin- 

 ner shell than the typical form growing in the mountains of central 

 Europe. The difference between resident Scandinavian and South 

 European specimens is easily explained from a similar reason, as Pinus 



' In the table alluded to the length of the bill is given as 30 mm . This I take to he 

 a misprint or a slip of the pen for 40 mni , as the length from nostril to tip of bill is said 

 to be 34.2 mm , exactly as in the Japanese specimen before me, the exposed culmen of 

 which is 40 mm . 



