24 Mr. H. Seebohm on the 



of the eastern form^ which it greatly resembles in the colour of 

 the underparts. The fact^ however, is that the two species 

 belong to different groups, apparently separated by a hard 

 and fast line from each other — P. major and its allies always 

 having white scapulars, and P. cabanisi and its allies always 

 having black scapulars. 



Malherbe, in his ' Monograph of the Picidse,^ divides Picus 

 cabanisi into four species — P. mandarinus, P. gouldi, P. 

 cabanisi, and P. luciani. The characters upon which these 

 species are founded are the presence or absence of a red spot 

 on the breast, the shape of the red spot on the nape, and the 

 variation in tint of the underparts. All these characters 

 appear to me to be valueless. There are two extreme 

 forms of P. cabanisi — P. luciani and P. cabanisi — between 

 which every intermediate stage occurs. In the former the 

 white spots on the innermost secondaries meet, forming several 

 broad white bars across the feathers. In the latter these 

 white spots are obsolete or nearly so. The former are con- 

 fined to North China, and the latter to South China, whilst 

 the intermediate forms are principally confined to interme- 

 diate localities. 



The other statement of Sharpe and Dresser, that examples 

 of the Great Spotted Woodpecker from different parts of 

 Europe show "little or no variation^' is equally inaccurate. 



Examples from St. Petersburg, Archangel, the valleys of 

 of the Obb and the Yenesay, and from Lake Baikal are larger, 

 and much whiter on the underparts, than those from Britain 

 and South Europe, and are known to ornithologists as P. cissa 

 of Pallas. They would, undoubtedly be recognized as a good 

 species, were it not for the fact that in Scandinavia, and in the 

 valley of the Amoor, intermediate forms occur. 



In Japan a form of the Great Spotted Woodpecker occurs 

 which appears to be distinct from any of the allied forms. I 

 propose to call it Picus japonicus. I have eleven examples — 

 two from Hakodadi and five from Yokohama, two from South 

 Yezo, one from the island of "Sakhalin, and one from the 

 Kurile Islands. The colour of the underparts agrees with 

 P. major-cissa from Scandinavia ; but the white on the secon- 



