Catalogue of the Birds of Japan. 33 



207. Parus minor, T. & S. 



A skin (No. 1119) in the Swinhoe collection from Hako- 

 date agrees with the plate in the ' Fauna Japonica/ and with 

 skins from China in the same collection. This is a very 

 good species, and differs from skins of P. major, Linn., in 

 my collection from Heligoland, Asia INIinor, and Kras-no- 

 yarsk in Siberia, in being somewhat smaller in size, and in 

 liaving the greenish yellow of the . underparts replaced by 

 huffish white. 



208. Parus varius, T. & S. 



A skin in the Swinhoe collection (No. 1195) labelled " ^ , 

 Hakodate, April," agrees with the plate in the ' Fauna 

 Japonica.^ 



Since the article on the birds of Japan was published I 

 have received a skin of an /Egithalus from Capt. Blakiston 

 (No. 2545), labelled " S , Nagasaki, Japan, Feb." This bird 

 is yS. consobrinus, Swinhoe (P. Z. S. 1870, p. 133). It 

 agrees exactly with the type in the Swinhoe collection from 

 China. Egithalus penduVmus (Linn.) seems to be subject to 

 as much variation as his cousins just spoken of; Severtzoff 

 described four supposed new species from Tui'kestan, but he 

 afterwards reduced them to two. It is impossible to form 

 any opinion as to the probability of any of these forms being 

 entitled to rank as subspecies. In the absence of any 

 evidence to the contrary, I am inclined to pronounce the skin 

 from Japan and Swinhoe^s type of M. consobrinus to be 

 females, or not fully adult males, of JS. pendulinus. They 

 are scarcely to be distinguished from a skin of a female in 

 my collection from Asia Minor, and another from Piedmont 

 in Dresser's collection. Capt. Blakiston writes, " I found 

 three specimens among some skins sent me by Mr. F. 

 Ringer, of Nagasaki. Two I retain, one a male identical 

 with that sent you now, and the other a female, which differs 

 in wanting the black line through the eye, and chestnut collar 

 on the hind neck. The head is dull brown instead of ash ; 

 and altogether the plumage is less brilliant." This descrip- 

 tion I take to be that of a bird of tiie year. It agrees very 



SER. IV, VOL. III. u 



