448 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
that the resident bird of Japan is, “to all intents and purposes, 
identical with the resident form of Europe.” On the contrary, it 
is evident to me that it is, to all intents and purposes, identical 
with the Siberian, or the slender-billed form, N. c. macrorhynchus. 
The very meagre details in regard to his specimens, which Mr. 
Seebohm furnishes in his article, do not support his own conclu- 
sion that ‘‘ the white spots * * * on the ends of the tail-feathers 
are * * * not so much [developed] as in examples from Siberia;” 
for he himself gives the white on tail as varying between 0°9 and 
1'1 inch in the Japanese birds, against a variation of from 0°8 to 
1°25 inch in Siberian and Chinese specimens and presumed 
European migrants, consequently nearly coinciding with the limits 
established for the latter. 
I am, therefore, forced to conclude that Dr. R. Blasius and 
V. von Tschusi-Schmidhoffen are right in distinguishing between 
an eastern and a western race, and that Mr. Seebohm is wrong in 
assuming the existence of an arctic and a temperate form of the 
Nutcracker. 
Before closing I would say, however, that I will not deny the 
possibility of a large series of Japanese birds, showing a some- 
what shorter bill, on the average, than continental Asiatic 
specimens; but I will venture to say that the difference in size 
and shape will not be so great as it is between resident birds 
from Scandinavia and Southern Europe, and I do not think that 
the differences will ever prove tangible or constant enough to 
allow a further subdivision of this species. Blasius and Von 
Tschusi have made it pretty plain that the differences in size 
and shape of bill in the two subspecies recognized are due to the 
difference in the food, the nut of the Siberian form of Pinus 
cembra haying a thinner shell than the typical form growing in 
the mountains of Central Europe. The difference between 
resident Scandinavian and South European specimens is easily 
explained from a similar reason, as Pinus cembra does not occur 
wild in Scandinavia, where the Nutcrackers are compelled to live 
on seeds or nuts harder and more difficult to open. Pinus cembra 
is said to occur in the highest mountains of Hondo, Japan, but 
apparently in limited number. It is therefore doubtful whether 
the Nutcracker to any great extent feeds on this fruit. I am also 
unable to say whether the Japanese P. cembra belongs to a thin- 
shelled variety or to a thick-shelled, as I cannot find it stated 
