Mr. R. Swinhoe on the Ornithology of Foochow. 259 



scarce, the first having betaken himself for the time to the salt- 

 fisheries, while the two last have turned wanderers and vagabonds 

 over the face of the country. But the Snipes are here, though 

 mostly to be met with in the wet, green patches of grass at the 

 corners of fields. There they may be found mostly in wisps, but 

 in this month generally singly. Gallinago uniclava is now com- 

 moner than the summer resident, G. stenura, which latter has a 

 heavier and more direct flight. Woodcocks are rare in Foochow, 

 but have been flushed once or twice among the hills. The Phea- 

 sant {Phasianus torquatus) is the chief bird here that incites the 

 sportsman. It is found on the copse-covered hill-sides, but by no 

 means so common as in the flat country about Shanghai. The 

 Chinese nevertheless manage to get abundance of them, and may 

 be seen nearly every day hawking them about the streets for 2*. 

 a-piece. The hills also afford the Chinese Francolin [Francolinus 

 perlatus) and the Bamboo Fowl — a species of Arhoricola (I think, 

 new, and which I have named temporarily A. hambusa:). Two 

 other Partridges, one wdth black legs and the other with feathered 

 legs, also occur; but as I have not yet seen them, I have no 

 means of giving further notice of them. 



As the gunboat ' Hardy,^ that was to carry us to Tamsuy, 

 in Formosa, grounded in her attempt to go down the river, we 

 had a day at our disposal to ramble over the imposing hill, Koo- 

 shan. In crossing the basin between the bridge and the moun- 

 tain, we were astonished to find the sand-spits so destitute of 

 birds. A few Sandpipers {Tringdides hypoleuca) appeared to be 

 the only representatives of the winter arrivals, fluttering and 

 skimmering, with tremulous wing and merry note, in front of our 

 boat, and alighting quite fearlessly a few yards off, where they 

 continued their mud-probing pursuits, accompanied by frequent 

 wagging of their posterior extremities. Some Wagtails were also 

 running about close to the water's edge. I had the satisfaction 

 of observing the three pied species noted before at Amoy. They 

 are so similar, apparently, at first sight, that one feels disposed to 

 rank them as varieties ; but on deeper study of their relative 

 characters and habits, each species is found to possess distinctive 

 marks of its own, and to be governed by distinct laws of migration 

 and distribution. Motacilla luzoniensis is the species perennially 



