204 



U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 



Year I^o. birds 



1924 10,472 



1925 32,685 



1926 71,077 



1927 24,404 



1928 12,979 



1929 61,431 



1930 14,683 



1931 9,630 



1932 32,434 



1933 24,417 



Year No. birds 



1934 11,314 



1935 39,925 



1936 8, 613 



1937 39,024 



1938 13,448 



1939 83,716 



1940 12,272 



1941 16,818 



1942 13,407 



Fall and winter. — The Japanese hawfinch apparently has a much 

 more pronounced migration than any of the other races of Cocco- 

 thraustes coccothraustes. The European hawfinch is generally regarded 

 as resident wherever it occurs, though it does some wandering in the 

 nonbreeding season. The Asiatic form also is found occasionally on 

 its breeding grounds in winter, but its seasonal presence and absence 

 and comings and goings in Japan leave no doubt that, although its 

 movements are highly irregular and its abundance in any given locality 

 very variable from year to year, the species has established there a 

 fairly definite pattern of migration. 



Sowerby (1923) writes of its movements on the continent: "It ap- 

 pears to be a little more than partially migratory in its habits, larger 

 numbers, especially immature birds, leaving the Manchurian Region 

 for East China, Korea and Japan for the winter. 



"While in the forests of North Kirin, I noticed large flocks of these 

 birds moving south in September, and all the specimens 1 secured 

 were immature. On the other hand I saw fully adult specimens in the 

 same regions after the fh'st snows had fallen; and in North China in the 

 middle of winter, when the ground was frozen hard, and the thermom- 

 eter stood at a few degrees from zero, I have secured specimens of 

 fully adult birds, both in forested mountainous areas and on the bleak, 

 wind-swept plains." 



In Japan the hawfinches generally appear in northern Honshu in 

 mid-October, reach central and southern Honshu from early November 

 to early December, and winter from central Honshu to southern 

 Kyushu, and in the Izu, Bonin, and Ryukyu Islands. The van of the 

 spring flight reaches Hokkaido in early April, and the wintering 

 population has left southern Japan by mid-April, though stragglers 

 may be observed there through May. Herman Jahn (1942) states 

 (translation from the German) : 



"One finds the hawfinch wintering in central and western Japan 

 from the end of October to the end of April. They are by no means 

 abundant; here and there one observes smaU flocks up to as many as 



