Catalogue of the Birds of Japan. 41 



species appears, E. passerina, Pall., and extends eastwards 

 into the valley of the Lena and into China. Still further 

 east, in Japan, E. schoeniclus, subsp. palustris, reappears. 



285. Syrnium rufescens, Temm. 



The skin sent (No. 2118) from Hakodate is a male of 

 Syrnium uralense, subspecies fuscescens, the Strix rufescens 

 of Temm. & Schlegers text, but named Strix fuscescens on 

 their plate. This skin is interesting, as showing that this 

 subspecies has a grey phase of plumage, Mr. Gurney informs 

 me that the Norwich Museum possesses two skins from 

 Japan in the more rufous phase figured in the ' Fauna 

 Japonica.^ 



286. Asio AcciPiTRiNUs (Pall.) , 



The skin sent (No. 1521) is that of the common Short- 

 eared Owl of North Europe and North Asia, the Otus 

 brachyotus of many ornithologists. 



287. Asio OTUS (L.). 



The skin sent (No. 2203) is correctly identified. 



296. Spizaetus orientalis, T. & S. 



The figure of this bird in the * Fauna Japonica ' is con- 

 sidered by both Sharpe and Gurney to represent a not fully 

 adult Spizaetus nipalemis (Hodgs.) . Mr. Gurney tells me that 

 there is some doubt as to the locality of the skin of this bird 

 in the Norwich Museum, supposed to have come from Japan. 

 It is a matter of importance that skins of fully adult Japanese 

 birds should be sent to this country, so that the identity of the 

 species with the Indian bird may be placed beyond a doubt. 



298. BuTEO JAPONicus, T. & S. 



299. BuTEo, sp. inc. 



Sharpe, in his ' Catalogue of Birds,^ considers the Japanese 

 Buzzard to be the not quite mature Buteoplumipes, Hodgs. ; but 

 Mr. Gurney, in his notes in 'The Ibis' (1876, p. 369), hesitates 

 to confirm this identification. Mr. Gurney assures me that 

 the pale form of the immature bird figured in the ' Fauna 

 Japonica ' is merely a less rufous phase of plumage, and that 

 the Norwich Museum possesses similar forms from China. 



