1888.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 547 



REVIEW OF JAPANESE BIRDS. 



IX.— THE WRENS. 



BY LEONHARD STEJNEGER. 



Contrary to what might be expected, a careful comparison of a toler- 

 ably oood series of Wreus from the islands of Japan proper shews no 

 difference between those inhabiting Yezo and those from Hondo and 

 Kiusiu Heuson's specimen is more like a Nagasaki bird collected by 

 Mr Ringer (U. S. Nat. Mas. No. 96258) than any other one in the 

 whole series, and as far as coloration is concerned the two birds are 

 practically identical. The other Hakodate specimen before me (U. S. 

 Nit Mus No. 9G256) is scarcely auy paler, while quite as dark and 

 brown as Nos. 91365 and 96257 from Hondo. That the Yezo specimens 

 are in no way larger than those from farther south is manifest from the 

 appended table of dimensions. 



On the whole, the large series of specimens before me are very uni- 

 form in color and coloration, remarkably so when we consider the vari- 

 ability of conditions under which these birds are found in the Japanese 

 Archipelago and the plasticity of the birds which constitute this genus. 

 But while Japan proper is only inhabited by one form of V ren, I am 

 forced to acknowledge another as an inhabitant of the Kurile Island., 

 or some of them, though I have only one specimen to base my conclu- 

 sions on. The great uniformity of the tvnefunigatus ^ «™*? 

 me however, that the new form will be found to be at least as s alid » I. 

 toU., which bears about the same relationship to ^common Euro- 

 pean Wren as does T. hurilensis to its southern neighbor Ehe d.l \ r 

 euce between the two forms is one of size and is sufficiently indicated 

 in the diagnosis given below. 



Subgenus ANORTHURA Rkxmk. 



+ (245) Troglodytes fumigatus Tkmm. Mis „ s:IZili . 



Japan Wren. , 161.— SwiNHOK, 



"f ?'s sr^T^B:4, d p o sit'*., v, , «* 



P. Z. b., 1»/U, p. U - , , goe> j VUI l880> 



kist. and Pkyer, Ujis, 1878, p. £S6. mi., ikiston. 



P.SW.-1M., ibid., x, 1882, p. 160.-S-.BOH1., Ibis 1879 p 37^ ; 



Cnrysantl,, Feb., 188,, p. _.-« A.ueud 1^ > ^ ^ y ^ hv (; ,. s . 



JouY, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vi, lp>, p. 28 ■ ^^ __ DyB0W8ia 



Ora.,1, 1884, p. 13.-**., Oru ExyL ^Kamtsch p. 293 •{!» 



andTACZAXOWSKi, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1884, Extr . 



fumigata ShaBPE, Cat. B. Brit. Mus v. p. - >• pi- ™. 



Ridgwav, Proc. U. S. Nat, Mus., vi, 1883, p. 370. 



^^^^^^^^ thesis ^™™ > — 



posed for that on p. 274. On the plate the names are given correct!} . 



