Ml-. P. L. Sclater on " Kittacincla auricularis." 109 



have been the means of peopling these islands with bird-life. 

 That the nearest group has caught the most stragglers must be 

 admitted; and that storms do bring stragglers, the occurrence, 

 as I have mentioned, of such birds as the Snow-Bunting and 

 Golden Oriole shows. It also seems tolerably certain that, were 

 it not for the constant persecution carried on by the inhabitants, 

 many species, arriving iu sufficient numbers, would be able to 

 establish themselves as permanent residents ; and a few years 

 would add, from this source alone, some accession to the legiti- 

 mate avifauna of these islands. But hundreds of Serins are 

 caught for cages, and the Red-legged Partridge has been 

 exterminated for the table in St. Michael's; it may therefore 

 be not unjustly inferred that other species have been affected in 

 like manner. 



Three months is not sufficient time to investigate thoroughly 

 an archipelago consisting of nine islands, situated so widely 

 apart as the Azores are from each other ; and that a great deal 

 still remains to be done I am well aware. I would gladly direct 

 the attention of other naturalists to this field, and I am sure 

 they would not regret a visit to a spot to which I myself look 

 back with so much pleasure. 



VIII. — Note on " Kittacincla auricularis," Swinhoe. 

 By P. L. Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., &c. 

 (Plate IV.) 

 One of the most beautiful and not the least interesting of 

 Mr. Swinhoe's more recent discoveries in Formosa is the bird of 

 which a figure is herewith given from Mr. Wolf's pencil*. It 

 has been described by its energetic discoverer in a former volume 

 of this journal f under the name " Kittacincla auricularis," but 

 can, I think, hardly be allowed to be called permanently by this 

 designation, even if Mr. Swinhoe's views as to the validity of 

 the genus " Kittacincla" (lege Cittocincla), as distinct from 

 Copsychus, be correct. In fact I do not consider that the pre- 

 sent bird is very closely connected with the group in which Mr. 

 Swinhoe has placed it. According to my ideas it belongs strictly 



* [We are indebted to the kindness of our good friend M. Jules Ver- 

 reaux for the opportunity of figuring the type specimen of this species. — 

 Ed.] t Ibis, 1864, p. 361. 



