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20 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. [1885. 



Dimensions. — Wing, 66™™; tailf., 52™™; expos, culmen, 10™™ ; tarsus, 

 18™™ ; middle toe with claw, 17.5™™. 



Habitat. — Lin-Kiu Islands, Japan. 

 . Type.— U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 21118. 



Collector. — William Stimpsou. 



Synonym. — Passer montanus Cassin, Pr. Philada. Acad. 1862, p. 314 

 {nee Linn.). 



The type of this new species or form was collected by Dr. Stimpson, 

 of the United States North Pacific Exploring Expedition, under Capt. 

 John Eodgers, on the Liu-Kiu Islands, a group of islands situated to 

 the south of Japan and politically belonging to that empire. The speci- 

 men was obtained in November, 1854. 



I have before me for comparison a series of true P. montanus from 

 Western Europe, Tenasserim, Canton, and Shanghai, China, and from 

 the Northern and Middle Islands of Japan. These are practically 

 identical, eastern and western specimens being absolutely indistin- 

 guishable both as to size and color, the only exception being the skin 

 from Tenasserim, which has the back, particularly the rump, slightly 

 more brownish than the others, the white parts, however, wing bands, 

 tips of tertiaries, sides of head and neck, and under parts as pure as 

 they. The average measurements of 8 males are: Wing, 69"""; tailf., 

 52.5"""; exposed culmen, 10.8'""'; tarsus, 17.6™'"; middle toe with claw, 

 18™-. 



There is, consequently, no appreciable difference in size, since the 

 type specimen of P. saturatus, though somewhat smaller than the above 

 averages, is equal to the smallest P. montanus of my series. The main 

 distinction is the rich suffusion of the umber-brown color, which does 

 away with all traces of gray and strongly stains the white markings. 



Passer saturatus is evidently a local form of P. montanus, and proba- 

 bly an insular one, confined to the group from which the type was re- 

 ceived. No intergradation between the two forms is known to occur, 

 however, nor is it likely to be found, thus relieving us of the necessity 

 of a trinominal, for the present at least. 



The species here under consideration {montanus and saturatus) afford 

 another example of a form, distributed over an immense area without 

 showing any variation at all, which then on a restricted and isolated 

 locality sets off" a small branch showing distinctive features. In this 

 respect P. montanus is analogous with Asio accipitrinus and Lagopus 

 lagopus (cf. A. portoricensis et galapagoensis, and L. lagopus alleni). -t 



United States National Museum, 



Washington^ D. C, December 25, 1884. 



