Bullfinches of Siberia and Japan. 101 



generally from females of P. rosacea by the much less amount. 

 Under all circumstances we may, however_, erase the species 

 P. cineracea from the list of Japanese birds. 



Pyrrhula rosacea appears to be a good species^ confined to 

 the island of Yesso and the opposite coast of the mainland, 

 whilst P. orientaUs is found only on the other Japanese 

 islands. Mr. Sharpe has separated the Knrile Island birds 

 as P. kurilensis. They are unquestionably much paler, but 

 further investigation is almost sure to lead to the discovery 

 of intermediate forms, and I have not the least doubt that 

 both species will be ultimately reduced to the rank of sub- 

 species, and will stand as Pyrrhula orientaUs rosacea and 

 Pyrrhula orientaUs kurilensis respectively. 



If the same rules be applied to P. cineracea, it must also 

 be divided into two forms. The typical form from Dauria 

 (Krasnoyarsk, Lake Baikal, and Onon Kiver) has a great deal 

 of white on the wing-bar, and none on the sides of the head. 

 Examples from the Altai Mountains and from the valley of 

 the Ussuri, on the other hand, have the wing-bar grey, the 

 sides of the head almost white, and are paler on the under- 

 parts generally. I propose to call the extreme eastern form 

 Pyrrhula cineracea pallida, as it differs quite as much from 

 its more western ally as P. kurilensis does from P. orientaUs. 

 In the same way I propose to reduce P. kamtscJiatica to the 

 rank of a subspecies, and to call it P. vulgaris kamtschatica ; 

 it differs from the typical form in being somewhat paler in 

 colour, and in having more white on the wing-bar. 



The Black-headed Bullfinches vary very much, probably 

 because they are only gipsy migrants and have wide ranges. 

 P. vulgaris in some form or other ranges from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific, from the British Islands to Kamtschatka. In 

 the west it reigns supreme, except that the colony on the 

 Azores is recognized by all ornithologists as an independent 

 nation claiming full specific rank as P. murina. In the 

 east it has two rivals to contend with, P. orientaUs and 

 P. cineracea. The former has a very restricted range, the 

 three forms into which it is subdivided being almost confined 

 to the Japanese Islands, the Kurile Islands, and the Island 



