Birds of the Loo-choo Islands. 175 



12. Erithacus komadori. 



Mr. Pryer, or, to be strictly accurate, his friend Mr. Na- 

 miye, has solved the mystery of the so-called ' Corean Uobin.' 

 It appears that, after all, this bird, as remarkable for the gaiety 

 of its plumage as for the melody of its song, does not come 

 from the Corea. In Japan it is only known as a very expen- 

 sive cage-bird, but about twenty miles from the town of 

 Shiuri, on the largest of the Loo-choo Islands, and on the 

 island of Amami, Oho- Shima, it is a common species. As 

 Mr. Jouy saw no trace of this bird during his three years* 

 residence in the Corea, it should for the future be called the 

 Loo-choo Robin. 



13. CiSTICOLA BRUNNEICEPS. 



The skin of a Fantail Warbler from Loo-choo, dated 2nd 

 June, differs from any that I have seen before. This is an 

 extreme form of the eastern or tropical race, which may 

 possibly have a right to the name Cisticola schoenicola 

 brunneiceps. In breeding-plumage, examples from South 

 Africa, the plains of India, Ceylon, Japan, and Formosa 

 approach very near it, but it differs from European examples 

 in the colour of the tail. The black subterminal band is 

 separated from the black basal half by brownish buff on 

 both webs of the two central tail-feathers and on the outer 

 webs of the rest, and by chestnut-buff on the inner webs of 

 the latter. This chestnut or buff band across the tail is 

 considerably more than half an inch wide : it is absent in 

 winter plumage, but examples showing more or less of it are 

 found in breeding birds in all the tropical countries where it 

 is found, but never in the colder portions of its range. 

 Under these circumstances it must be regarded as subspe- 

 cifically distinct from C. schoenicola. 



In this case the Loo-choo species is decidedly not Malayan 

 in character. C. exilis has no trace whatever of the buff band 

 across the tail. Its range extends northwards from Australia 

 and many of the islands of the Malay archipelago to the 

 Malay peninsula and the Philippines, inosculating with that 

 of its more \*estern ally in Burma, Assam, and Formosa. 



