All rights reserred. March, 1911. 



BIRD NOTES: 



THE 



JOURNAL OF THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB. 



The Loo-choo Robin. 



(Erithacus komadori) . 

 By Hubbkt D. Astley, M.A., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 

 Up to a certain period, little or nothing- was known about 

 this beautiful Robin, but in Mr. Seebohm's " Notes on the Birds 

 of the Loo-choo Islands" [Ibis., 1887, p. 175] he writes: — 



" Mr. Pryer, or to be strictly accurate, his friend Mr. Namiye, has 

 " solved the mystery of the so-called " Corean Robin." It appears after 

 " all that this bird, as remarkable for the gaiety of its plumage as for the 

 " melody of its song, does not come from Corea. In Japan it is only 

 "known as a very expensive 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 Corea, it should 

 " for the future be called the Loo-choo Robin." 



[Let US note the latter sentence! — H. D. A.] 

 Again, in the " Ibis," 1888, p. 233, Mr. Seebohm writing 

 on the subject of Erithacus ?iamiyei, says: — 



" It is very difficult to say whether the bird described by Dr. 

 " Stejneger is a state of plumage of E. komadori, or a local race of that 

 " curious bird. I only know of three examples of E. komadori in Europe 

 " — the male and female in the Ijeydeii Museum, and a male (a cage-bird 

 "from Japan) in my own collection, which agrees with the type, and not 

 " with Dr. Stejneger's description." 



I believe there are two skins of this Robin in the 

 London Natural History Museum. Mr. Seebohm, when ,he 

 speaks of a cage -bird from Japan, of course means its skin, 

 and not a living bird. 



To me, I fancy, falls the honour of possessing probably 

 the only living- one in Europe, thanks to the saleable price 

 put upon it by its late owner, Mr. Ezra, at the L.C.B.A. Show 

 in November, 1910, at the Horticultural Hall, Westminster. 



Mr. Collingwood Ingram saw living individuals in cages 

 in Japan [" Avicultural Magazine," June, 1910], and was 

 greatly attracted by their beauty, writing of theni as coming 



