428 Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, S)C. 



Irides deep hazel-brown. The feathers of the throat are rounded, 

 and not lanceolate as in C. sinensis. Occiput and hind-neck 

 greyish black, tinged with olive. Lower parts obscurely shot 

 with green ; upper parts with green and purple, the latter colour 

 chiefly on the wings. 



Another novelty of much interest is a new Pitta, of which I 

 received a specimen from the Formosan Mountains on the 16th 

 May. It is allied to Pitta cyanoptera and P. nympha. From 

 the former it can at once be distinguished by its reddish crown 

 and light under parts, and from the latter by the colour of its 

 crown and the want of the black chin. It may be described as 

 follows : — 



Pitta oreas, n, sp. Crown dull reddish brown ; eye-streak 

 full and long, yellow-ochre ; median coronal streak, and stripe 

 from base of bill, under ear-coverts to back of neck, and entire 

 hind-neck black. Back and scapulars gi'een, as in P. brachyura; 

 shoulder-spot and upper tail-coverts fine verditer blue ; wing- 

 coverts and tertiary quills green, more or less bluish, with more 

 or less black on their inner webs; quills and tail black, a white 

 spot on the former occupying portions of the first seven quills ; 

 the tenth quill slightly edged at the tip with bluish, the rest 

 towards the tertiaries broadly edged on a good part of the outer 

 web with bluish green. Throat and under-neck white, with a 

 tinge of ochre. Under parts pale ochreous, washed with green 

 on the flanks ; centre of belly, from breast downwards, and whole 

 of under tail-coverts fine carmine. Axillaries black ; under 

 shoulder-edge greenish blue. Bill black ; legs and claws light 

 flesh- colour. 



Length 8 inches ; wing 5 in. j tail 1"8 in. Bill, along culmen, 

 1 in.; to gape 1'2 in.; depth at base '35 in. Tarse 1'6 in. 



Yours &c., Robert Swinhoe. 



Mr. J. H. Gurney sends us the following extract of a letter 

 from Mr. Swinhoe, dated Formosa, 8th March, 1864 : — 



" I have succeeded in procuring another fine specimen of the 

 Owl described in the ' Ibis,^ 1864, p. 218, under the name of 



