begun on a beautiful folio of plates entitled Monograph of the Birds of Greater East Asia, 
compiled by Take-Tsukasa, Uchida, Kuroda, and Yamashina and illustrated by the best artists 
in Japan, but only four parts were issued before the printing plant was destroyed in 1944, 
During the first three yeare of the war, university and privately financed projects 
such as Yamashina's and Makino's cytological studiee, Taka-Tsukasa's monumental Birds of 
Nippon, Kuroda's work on ducks, and Hachisuka's studies of Philippine birds were continued 
despite increasing difficulties, The Ornithological Society of Japan held regular meetings 
and published its organ, Tori, more or less on schedule, Chief among its wartime works was 
the publication of the third and revised edition of A Hand-List of Japanese Birds, issued 
in the autumn of 1942 and listing all the species known to occur in the former Japanese 
emoire including Sakhalin, the Kurils, Korea, the Ryukyus, Formosa, and Micronesia. How- 
ever, the fire raids of 1944-45 ended the society's activities, and its last publication 
was number 55, volume 11 of Tori, dated September 1944, The last meetings of the society 
were held that autumn, With the encouragement of Natural Resources Section, the society 
was re-established in November 1946, and meetings were resumed, 
The average Japanese scientist did not realize how imminent and devastating the 
bombing raids would be; consequently, efforts to save books and specimens came too late, 
Before the coming destruction was generally apparent, transportation was paralyzed, and 
neither trucks nor carts were available to take treasures away from the vulnerable cities, 
The worst losses were sustained by Prince Taka-Tsukasa and Marquis Kuroda whose homes, 
aviaries, libraries, and collections were demolished in May 1945, Kuroda's collections 
alone contained the types (about 125) of more valid Japanese birds and mammals than all 
other Japanese collections combined, Fortunately Kuroda had placed a few of his choicest 
items in a small concrete building which resisted the conflagration, Among the 20 specimens 
saved are his two Pseudotadorna and the unique types of Astrapia recondita and Erythrura 
trichroa pelewensis, 
The Hachisuka and Tokyo Imperial University collections had been combined with the 
Yemashina collection in the latter's miseum before World War II, These specimens and 
Yamashina's excellent library were evacuated to the mountains for sefety. Though Yamashina's 
home, aviaries, and out-buildings were destroyed, the museum building adjoining them was 
not damaged, The library and collections have been returned to the museum, and it now 
houses the most complete and valuable bird and mammel material in postwar Japan, 
The collections and the main library of the Bird and Mammal Laboratory in Tokyo were 
likewise seved, but the stock of its own publications was not. These publications, those 
of the new Research Institute, the last number of Tori, and some privately printed works 
such as Take-Tsukase's Study of the Galli of Nippon, published just before the fire raids, 
are exceedingly rare, 
The Kobayashi egg collection in Kobe, the University collections at Kyoto and Sendai, 
and the historic Blackiston collection in Sapporo are still intact, though deteriorating 
rapidly from lack of proper care and storage. 
The accompanying annotated bibliography provides a detailed resume of Japanese war- 
time ornithological and mammalogical work, 
PLAN OF THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
This bibliography includes all known technical works in ornithology and mammalogy 
published in Japan from January 1941 to November 1947, The more important popular and 
semi=popular works issued during the same period are included. Popular magazine articles 
of a general nature, of too little value scientifically to justify abstracting, have been 
omitted, 
All works cited, unlese otherwise stated, were published in Japanese, The titles 
of all papers published in well-lmown journals such as Tori and the Zoological Magazine 
4 
