BRAMBLING 199 



Migration. — Early date of fall arrival is: Alaska — Amchitka 

 Island, October 14. 



Late date of fall departure is: Alaska — St. Paul Island, October 25. 



COCCOTHRAUSTES COGCOTHRAUSTES JAPONICUS Temminck and Schlegel 



Japanese Hawfinch 

 Contributed by Ouver L. Austin, Jr. 



Habits 



The Japanese hawfinch is admitted to the A.O.U. Check-List on 

 the basis of a single specimen taken in the Pribilof Islands November 

 1, 191L Evermann (1913), who reported its capture by a native at 

 the village landing of St. Paul's Island, comments: "It was a new bird 

 to the natives, none of them recognizing it as anything they had ever 

 seen before." The species breeds to the limit of trees in Kamchatka 

 and eastern Siberia, not too great a distance from American territory 

 for strong wings to negotiate, and that it should have been recorded 

 only this once within the Check-List area is the more remarkable 

 because the species is a rather erratic migrant and winter wanderer. 



Coccothraustes coccothraustes is a widespread palearctic species, a 

 representative and characteristic bird of the northern forest belt of 

 Europe and Asia. It is comparatively distinct and nonplastic, and 

 its subspecies are not strongly marked, although five races are gen- 

 erally recognized and others have been described. The species tends 

 to become paler from west to east across the continent, and exhibits 

 minor size and other color variations along the southern and lateral 

 peripheries of its breeding range. The nominate race breeds across 

 northern Europe generally from the British Isles through Scandinavia 

 and Russia. C.c.japonicus, the palest form of aU, inhabits extreme 

 eastern Asia from Manchuria to Japan and Kamchatka. A smaller, 

 grayer race, buvryi, breeds in southwestern Europe and northwestern 

 Africa; a darker bird, nigricans, inhabits the Caucasus region from 

 the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea; a yellower subspecies, humii, is 

 recognized in Turkestan and northern India. 



Hawfinches are birds of deciduous woods and mixed forests rather 

 than pure stands of evergreens. In settled lands they are confirmed 

 and sometimes locaUy common dwellers in wooded parks, gardens, 

 and orchards, where their depredations, particularly to such pitted 

 fruits as cherries, do not endear them to agriculturists. However, 

 they are nowhere overly abundant, and as they are rather shy and 

 quiet, especially in the breeding season, they are not easily observed. 

 In some areas they tend to be permanent residents and show very 

 little migratory activity, but usually they move erratically south- 



