Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 297 



grey. Basal half of the reyniges on the underwing edged with 

 salmon- buff. The stems of the remiges arc of the same colour. 

 Bill nearly as bright red as in the adult. Legs and toes well 

 washed with black. 



Psaropholus ardens. First full plumage. Bill brownish, 

 tinged with blue. Legs leaden-blue. Head and hind neck dull 

 black; throat and under neck the same, freckled with white. 

 Axillaries and tibm brownish black. Belly whitish, smeared 

 and streaked with brown, more or less blackish. Wing deep 

 brown, quills narrowly edged, paler. Wing-coverts broadly tip- 

 ped with reddish-buff, which colour margins the first tertiaries. 

 Some of the scapulars tipped with same, and in the nestling 

 these spots probably extended to the dorsals also. They still 

 occur here and there on the back of the full-fledged bird ; but 

 the red is crowding them out, and has already become crimson 

 on the rump and tail. The tail, however, is still washed with 

 black. In the fledgeling stage this bird must be very Turdine, 

 more so than the Yellow Orioles. 



On the 7th of November I received a few birds from Consul 

 Caine at Swatow. They were the following: — Pelecanus philip- 

 pensis, fine mature male with curled occipital crest ; Nycticorax 

 griseus, in immature or first plumage ; Gallicrex cristata, male 

 in young plumage, distinguishable from the female by its redder 

 tinge and larger size ; Butorides javanica, mature male ; and 

 Tchitrea principalis, immature, with reddish wings and tail, and 

 dusky bill and legs. The Pelican received this time is the only 

 mature specimen of this species that I have yet procured. I have 

 sent it home for identification. 



My account of our Formosan Turnix rostrata will long ere 

 this have reached you [Ibis, 1865, p. 543]. You will therein 

 learn the fact of my having discovered the bird in attendance 

 upon its young, that the only parent so engaged was the male 

 (found so to be on dissection); and you will read the remarks I 

 was led to make on this curious occurrence. The third volume 

 of Jerdon's 'Birds of India ^ has just reached me; and turning 

 up T. taigour, Sykes, I find (p. 597) the following : — " The 

 females are said by the natives to desert their eggs, and to asso- 

 ciate together in flocks ; and the males are said to be employed in 



