ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 345 



tendency to split up into geographical subspecies or races. We have 

 not had an opportunity of con.paring- Kamtschatkan specimens with 

 those from more southern localities, and shall therefore abstain from 

 any further remarks beyond calling attention to the importance of hav- 

 ing a verj- careful and /ninute comparison made, and to the fact that 

 Pallas's -Passer arctous var. ;^ 1" from the Kurils, has not been redis- 

 covered yet. The third species alluded to is Snrnia nlula, which is not 

 known from Japan. Descriptions of Kamtschatkan specimens indicate 

 some differences, chiefly increased amount of the white color, which may 

 ultimately secure for them recognition as a race. 



When now directing our attention to the migratory summer visitors 

 their distribution and their migration routes, we sadly miss satisfactory 

 information as to the ornis to the north and east of Kamtschatka. Sev- 

 eral travelers have collected on the western and northern shores of the 

 Okotsk Sea; but, in the first place, they remained only a short time in 

 a few localities, and there is no special list from that region with suffi- 

 cient details concerning localities, &c. Still worse is the fact that what 

 scanty information we have is next to worthless. Middendorff and v 

 Schrenck are the chief collectors in that region, but, unfortunately 

 they are also the chief sinners in "lumping" allied forms, so that for 

 the solution of questions of this character it is impossible to tell with 

 certainty which forms they had before them, except perhaps in a few 

 cases (cf. later on in regard to the Swallows, p. 347). Ko example could 

 more strikingly illustrate the deplorable results of that kind of science 

 and none could more forcibly demonstrate the necessity of those nicer 

 distinctions which ornithologist of the other school, with becoming tole. 

 ration, have styled " hair-splitting." 



Fortunately, the oruis of the country to the south of Kamtschatka is 

 in a better condition, thanks to Capt. Thomas Blakiston's more than 

 twenty years of intelligent collecting and study in Japan. The Kuril 

 Islands, it is true, are still very little known, but also from there we 

 have, through Mr. Blakiston, received much valuable information. 



As a matter of course, most of the summer visitors to Kamtschatka 

 occur also in Japan, either breeding, transient, or wintering, and when 

 the specimens from the two countries are absolutely identical it may 

 be safe to assume that the Kamtschatkan birds migrate southward 

 directly to Japan along a route following the Kuril chain of islands. 

 There are, however, a number of species regularly occurring in Kam- 

 tschatka as summer visitors which do not pass through Japan on their 



