the alleged males from China and Japan with the females of the 

 European species, and the fact that the alleged females of the 

 Japanese hirds are apparently immature, are all arguments against 

 the validity of the species. The characters relied upon are the 

 smallness of the ear-patch (which agrees with that of the typical 

 female), the much narrower black frontal band (which is not narrower 

 than usual in my skins from China), the absence of the chestnut on 

 the forehead (which is scarcely perceptible in an example from Asia 

 Minor), the white eye-stripe (which may be a good character), the 

 buff throat (which is white in the typical form), and the absence of 

 the concealed chestnut bases of the breast-feathers (which has every 

 appearance of being a really good character). 



57. TROGLODYTES FUMIGATUS. 



(JAPANESE WREN.) 



Trofflodytes fumigatm, Temminck, Man. d'Orn. iii. p. 161 (183o). 



The Japanese Wren principally differs from" the Common Wren in 

 the colour of the underparts, which is darker and more rufous than 

 that of the underparts of the western species. 



Figures : Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. vi. pi. 16. fig. 2. 



The Japanese Wren is a resident in all the Japanese Islands. 

 Captain Blakiston has sent examples from Yezzo (Swinhoe, Ibis, 

 1874, p. 152); there are twelve in the Pryer collection from Yoko- 

 hama; I have one collected by Mr. Hey wood Jones on Fuji-yama in 

 summer, and three collected by Mr. Ringer at Nagasaki in winter, 

 where it was also procured by the Siebold Expedition (Temminck and 

 Schlegcl, Fauna Japonica, Aves, p. 69). 



It is common in Central Hondo, near the peaks of the high moun- 

 tains in summer, and frequents bushes near streams in the lowlands 

 in winter. Its song is described as low, delicious, and warbling, 

 exactly like that of the American Winter Wren (Jouy, Proc. United 

 States Nat. Mus. 1883, p. 287). 



The Japanese representative of the Common Wren is on an average 

 a paler and more rufous form than the Himalayan race, but the 

 darkest example from Nagasaki is scarcely distinguishable from the 

 palest from Sikkim, both dated January. 



