é 
296 _ BIRDS FROM YEZO, JAPAN—STEJNEGER. 
Jynx torquilla Lin. (174) 
When writing my “review” of the Japanese Woodpeckers (Proc: 
S. Nat. Mus., 1x, 1886, pp. 102-104) I had to regret my inability to 
examine Japanese specimens of the common Wryneck, as well as the 
insufficiency of my material to solve the question whether there are two 
climatic varieties of this bird separable by the deeper coloration of the 
alleged southern form. 
The five Japanese birds which I have now before me (see table below) 
prove conclusively to my mind that the difference in coloration is not 
due either to sex, age, season, or locality, for Mr. Henson has both the 
pale and the deeply colored form from Yezo. Owston’s specimen, from 
Hondo, is pale, and Petersen’s, from Kiusiu, is dark. I am fully con- 
vinced that we have only to do with a dichromatism similar to that of 
the owls, though, as in some of the dichromatie owls, the one or the 
other phase may predominate in certain localities. 
A comparison of the measurements below with those of the Western 
exuunples previously given (tom. cit., p. 104) shows that Bonaparte was 
right in saying that the Japanese Wryneck is smaller than Huropean 
specimens, though not much smaller as he alleges. In point of fact the 
difference in size between the examples from the two extremities of the 
Kurasian continent is so trifling that it would hardly do to basea sepa- 
‘ation of two forms upon that character, the more so as I have speci- 
mens of the same sex before me from both localities which are absolutely 
identical both in size and coloration. I would eall attention, however, to 
the curious uniformity in the size of the Japanese specimens as shown in 
the table below, with which Capt. Blakiston’s experience completely 
agrees, as in all the five Japanese Wrynecks measured by him the 
length of the wing was exactly 80", An individual variation of only 
In in ten specimens is certainly extraordinarily small. 
Measurements. 
E 
S 
| S 
a 
| | 2 
| | | fs 
. Collector and | A 8 S 
Museum and No.) N = Loeality. | Date. 5 g 
No. é e oe et Co) 
| of | HH = S 
a | | aes Has . 
| | - nL 
| | ai/Slalk] 
a | oo | & gz etl Ce) eS 
| Spee) SS g 
4 Bolen Le = 
D || r a ial 3 A oO 
<a \F |e /A/a |< pS 
pee ze Ices eras = |S Sra = B: 
U.S. Nat., 120560.| Henson, 30..|fad. Hakodate, Yezo..| May 11, 1886 | 80 | 65 | 15 | 20 | 17 | Pale 
U.S. Nat., 120561) Henson, 24..|Qad.|....do..-.-. ...__. May 11, 1886 | 80 | 65 | 14 | 20) 16] Do 
U.S. Nat., 120562.| Henson, 106_|Qad.|....do...... ..___- May 9, 1884 | 79 | 63 | 13 | 20 |....| Dark 
U.S. Nat., 110208.) Owston, 2895 alls eLLONG OF eee | Persie SNe Seine | eel G5 eect CON Cones ee ee 
U.S. Nat.,110483.) Petersen, 13 .| jad. Urakami, IGusiu.| Jan. 7, 1886 | 80 | 64 | 13 | 19 | 17 | Dark. 
| | | 
