March, x9o$1 $x FROlq FIELD AND STUDY The Japan Stork.--My friend 3It. T. Kimura of Stanford University has kindly loaned me three interesting photographs showing the nest, adult, and young of the Japan stork, Ciconia bo?ciana Swi?hoe. These photo- graphs were taken in June, T9o 4, at Izushi in the west central I?ortion 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 n? been formerly fairly common in the general region. This nest is viewed by many people ever), day. The coming of the stork is regarded as a happy omen pointing to the supremacy of Japan in the final outcrone 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 Europe. but is larger; and while the former has a red bill with a black sl?t in front of the eye, the THE JAPAN STORK. IZlUSHI. JAPAN Japanese species has a black bill with a red spot of naked skin. The Japanese name is Ko-dzuru. (See also: Ste]neger, Proc. 1'. $. Nat. Museum, I887, pp. 285-286.)--W^LTER K. F1SIIER. The Flycatcher from the Santa Barbara Islanis.--Iu 73e Auk for July, ?897, pp. 3oo-3o3, Mr. H. C. Oberholser described an alleged new species of flycatcher from the Santa Bar- bam group of islands, calling it Impidt,to_r i?tsul?cola. His material consisted of five speci- mens, two from Santa Ro:a island, two from ?uta Cruz island, and one from Santa Catalina island. Of these, one specimen is remarked upon as differing somewhat groin the rest, thus in- terrnpting the uniformity of tbe ".-eries"! In his further tenturks the author calls attention to the fact that mnong a lot of mainlaml examples of E,tpith,ta_r diJficilis are at least two which show close approach to "ittsulicola" in characters. He also recognizes "a considerable range of variation" in the mainland series "not .?atisfactorily attributable to geographical causes." It is this latter observation that I wish to coucur with, and emphasize. In fact, I feel convinced that "insulicola" itself was based upon individual variants of d(l?cilis. t In June, ?897, I secured an Empidonax on San Clemente island. The two skins obtained were submitted to Mr. Oberholser, who marked them insulicola, 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, 19oo, p. ?3o), 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 ?898. I also have at hand a series of 5o mainland skins of Empido?tax dil?cilis, 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 yellowhess, all of which appears to me to be entirely independent of locality. I have carefully
