March, 1905 | 
5i 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
The Japan Stork. — My friend Mr. T. Kimura of Stanford University has kindly loaned 
me three interesting photographs showing the nest, adult, and young of the Japan stork, 
Ciconia boyciana Swinhoe. These photo- 
graphs were taken in June, 1904, at Izushi 
in the west central portion of the main 
island of Japan. The accompanying repro- 
duction of one of the photographs shows 
the old bird and one young standing, and 
apparently one young lying in the nest. 
Another photograph, however, reveals four 
young in a sitting posture, together with 
the adult. Mr. Kimura informs me that the 
tortoise and stork are venerated in Japan as 
emblems of long life, and figures of them 
are used in the ceremony of marriage. A 
note on the back of the photograph, in the 
Japanese language, informs the reader that 
the storks recently returned to this locality 
after an absence of many years, having 
been formerly fairly common in the general 
region. This nest is viewed by many people 
every day. The coming of the stork is 
regarded as a happy omen pointing to the 
supremacy of Japan in the final outcome 
of the present war. The Japanese believe 
that the cannonading and noise of fighting 
have driven the storks out of their wonted 
homes to seek refuge in the flowery kingdom. 
I am indebted to Dr. Leonhard Stejneger 
for the identification of the birds. Dr. 
Stejneger writes that this species is closely 
allied to the white stork of Kurope, but is 
larger; and while the former has a red bill 
with a black spot in front of the eye, the 
Japanese species has a black bill with a red 
spot of naked skin. The Japanese name 
is Ko-dzuru. (See also: Stejneger, Proc. l T . S. Nat. Museum, 1S87, pp. 2, S5-286.)— Walter K. 
Fisher. 
The Flycatcher from the Santa Barbara Islands.— In The Auk for July, 1897, pp. 
300-303, Mr. H. C. Oberholser described an alleged new species of flycatcher from the Santa Bar- 
bara group of islands, calling it Empidonax insu/icola. Ilis material consisted of five speci- 
mens, two from Santa Rosa island, two from Santa Cruz island, and one from Santa Catalina 
island. Of these, one specimen is remarked upon as differing somewhat from the rest, thus in- 
terrupting the uniformity of the “series”! In his further remarks the author calls attention to 
the fact that among a lot of mainland examples of Empidonax difficilis are at least two which 
show close approach to “iusu/icola" in characters. He also recognizes “a considerable range of 
variation” in the mainland series “not satisfactorily attributable to geographical causes.” It is 
this latter observation that I wish to concur with, and emphasize. In fact, I feel convinced that 
“insulicola” itself was based upon individual variants of difficilis! 
In June, 1897, I secured an Empidonax on San Clemente island. The two skins obtained 
were submitted to Mr. Oberholser, who marked them iusu/icola, and these were so recorded in 
my paper. (Rep. Bds. Santa Barbara Ids., Aug. 1897, p. 15.) Also Mr. Oberholser has recorded 
the same birds in the Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum (Vol. XXII, 1900, p. 230), re- 
marking that they were “substantially identical with those from the other islands.” I now have 
these two skins before me, and another from the Mailliard collection, taken on Santa Cruz island 
in April 1898. I also have at hand a series of 50 mainland skins of Empidonax difficilis, includ- 
ing 9 from Sitka, Alaska, and several from Arizona. I am impressed with the great amount 
of variation shown, in intensities of dorsal brownness, pectoral brownish suffusion, and abdominal 
yellowness, all of which appears to me to be entirely independent of locality. I have carefully 
