Capt. Blakiston on the Ornithology of Northern Japan. 311 



our berth near her, and discovered that she was on the point of 

 leaving for one of the new ports on the lately acquired coast of 

 Manchouria. A great number of Gulls were disporting themselves 

 over the placid water of the harbour, and collecting the refuse 

 thrown overboard from the junks, or pieces of bait discarded 

 by the fishermen ; and as a thick fog precluded a distinct view of 

 the shore, I watched these birds with much interest. Although 

 varying very considerably in plumage, they were all of one kind, 

 Larus melanurus — the only species, in fact, as far as my observa- 

 tions went, that spends the summer at Hakodadi. This is, more- 

 over, the only Gull given in the ' Fauna Japonica ' as inhabiting 

 the Japanese islands ; but Commodore Perry's United States Ex- 

 pedition, which visited the country in 1854 (the ornithological 

 Report on which, by Mr. Cassin, will be found in vol. ii. of the 

 Government publication), has added L, ichthy actus (Pallas), be- 

 sides a single immature specimen of what was considered to be 

 L. brunneicephalus, collected in the Bay of Yedo, on the east 

 coast. The first was said to be abundant in March. In October 

 I observed, at Hakodadi, two or three of a large species of Gull, 

 all white, except the back and coverts of the wings, which were of 

 a light slate-colour. On one or two occasions I also saw a Tern, 

 certainly not S. fuliginosa, figured in the ' Fauna Japonica,' but 

 a small slate-blue and white species. 



I think I have here enumerated all the Larida known as be- 

 longing to Japan. Their paucity induces me to believe that there 

 is here a fine field of discovery open to any persevering ornitho- 

 logist who may feel inclined to make a sojourn among the islands 

 of this intei'esting group. In fact, I consider the ornithology of 

 Japan to be very imperfectly worked up. Siebold's specimens 

 are all from the south, and probably most from Kiusu (the island 

 on which Nagasaki is situated), while the fact of his having ob- 

 tained them all, or nearly all, from the natives accounts for the 

 want of information concerning habits and habitats in the 'Fauna 

 Japonica,' otherwise so fine a production. All that is known of 

 the ornithology of Northern Japan specially is from the Expedi- 

 tion of Commodore Perry, already mentioned (most of the birds 

 in which collection were obtained at Hakodadi, and are referred 

 to in the following list), and from the later collections made by 



V 2 



