18 Mr. H. Seebohm on Messrs. Blakiston and Fryer's 



any further north than lat. Q7°. Siberian birds, like those 

 of North Europe, are somewhat darker brown above and 

 purer white below than our Sand-Martin. 



[To be continued.] 



II. — Remarks on Messrs. Blakiston and Fryer's Catalogue of 

 the Birds of Japan. By Henry Seebohm. 

 (Plate I.) 

 Through the kindness of the Editors of 'The Ibis ' two small 

 collections of birds from Japan have been placed in my hands 

 for examination. The first collection contains 38 skins, seiit 

 by Mr. Blakiston from Hakodate for identification, to which 

 Mr. Pryer has added 12 skins at Yokohama. 



The second collection contains 64 skins, and is the result 

 of a visit paid by Mr. Heywood Jones to the village of Shim- 

 bashiri, about 2000 feet above the level of the sea, on the 

 volcanic mountain of Fusiyama, near Yokohama. 



The numbers and the names in the subjoined remarks are 

 those used in the ' Catalogue of the Birds of Japan,' by Messrs. 

 Blakiston and Pryer, published in ' The Ibis ' of last year 

 (pp. 209-250) . 



The birds of Japan possess a special interest to the British 

 ornithologist. These islands occupy a somewhat analogous 

 position on the east of the mainland of the Palsearctic region 

 to our own islands on the west of the same great zoological 

 district. Similar facts of geographical situation appear to 

 have produced similar results in the two groups of islands, 

 namely the presence of insular forms diff"ering too slightly 

 from the continental types to admit them to specific distinc- 

 tion. In order that these interesting facts should not be 

 lost sight of, I have been obliged to admit the use of sub- 

 specific names. It is the boast of British ornithologists that 

 their system of nomenclature is binomial. When Linnaeus 

 substituted a word instead of a sentence to designate a spe- 

 cies, he made an immense stride towards simplicity of nomen- 

 clature. The practice of Brisson and the earlier ornitholo- 



