110 Mr. P. L. Sclater on " Kittacincla auricularis/' 



to the Crateropodince or Strong-footed Thrushes of Asia and 

 Africa, amongst which its nearest ally seems to be the Sibia 

 capistrata of the Himalayas. Comparing the two birds together, 

 scarcely any difference in form is perceptible, except that the 

 bill of Sibia auricularis, as I propose to call it, is slightly stouter 

 and not quite so long as that of Sibia capistrata. The style of 

 coloration is also not very different in these two species ; but the 

 pencil of elongated auricular feathers renders the Formosan bird 

 readily distinguishable from all its congeners. Although there 

 is some sort of general resemblance between Sibia and Copsychus, 

 under which genus I include the members of Mr. Gould's genus 

 " Kittacincla" *, the Sibice are readily recognizable by their large 

 and strong feet, and their broader and much less compressed 

 bill. In Copsychus the frontal plumes are peculiar, being short 

 and erect and covering the base of the bill down to the small 

 oval nostrils. In Sibia the nasal apertures are lineariform and 

 more exposed, and the frontal plumes do not differ in character 

 from those of the rest of the head. In fact there can be no 

 possibility of confounding the two forms when an accurate 

 examination is made of them, although, of course, it is hardly to 

 be expected that Mr. Swinhoe, in the wilds of Formosa, without 

 books or specimens to refer to, should always be able to refer 

 his new discoveries to the correct genus. 



Another Indian species referred, by Dr. Jerdon, to the genus 

 Sibia is the Sibia picaoides (!) of Hodgson, from Nepal, Sikim, 

 and Bootan. This bird is, however, decidedly aberrant in form, 

 both as regards its more tenuirostral bill and singularly elongated 

 tail, which may perhaps necessitate the adoption for it of Mr. 

 Blyth's generic term Heterophasia. A more typical species of 

 the genus is Sibia gracilis of McLelland, of which examples^ 

 collected by Dr. Jerdon in the Khasya hills, are in Mr. Gould's 

 collection. I am not acquainted with Sibia melanoleuca, Tickell, 

 from Tenasserim ; but Dr. Jerdon states that it belongs to the 

 same type. 



The discovery of a species of Sibia in Formosa is of great 

 interest, as affording another instance of the I'ecurrence of Indian 

 mountain-forms in this island to which Mr. Swinhoe has already 

 called our attention. 



* Confer P. Z. S. lS(il, p. 187- 



