Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 311 



shall content myself, foi* the present, in leaving it along with 

 S. chrysea, to glory as a troublesome and aberrant form among 

 the Babbling Thrushes ; for, barring its head, the rest of its 

 build, its habits, and the colour of its eggs are in accordance 

 with those of Garrulax, and point to a kinship, however distant, 

 with that multiform group. 



On the 5th of June, 1865, 1 received some male Green Pigeons 

 from the Fungshan Mountains (Takow is in the Fungshan dis- 

 trict). I thought I had got in them the male of my Treron 

 foi'moscB, which species I had created on a single female pro- 

 cured at Taiwan in 1860 (Ibis, 1863, p. 396). I described the 

 bird in one of my late papers [anteci, p. 122], noting that the 

 species was not a true Treron, but, from its long, broad, wedge- 

 shaped tail, a Sphenocercus. I left my single type- specimen in 

 England ; but I have now received a male of the true Treron for- 

 moscB from the Kia-e district, and several of both sexes of the 

 same from the Fungshan district. It is incumbent on me 

 therefore to correct my hasty error, and to describe now the 

 true Treron formoste male. The Sphenocercus I should like to 

 stand as S. sororius, from its close affinity to ;S^. sieboldi, Tem- 

 minck, of Japan, from which, on reading the description of that 

 bird in the ' Fauna Japonica,' I find it to diflfer in the following 

 characters : — Its upper back is only tinged with grey, instead 

 of being deep grey ; its greater wing-coverts and tertiaries are 

 edged with pale primrose; but its chief difference is in the 

 blackish-grey of its lateral tail-feathers. The size of the two 

 species w^ould seem to run very close ; and I would hesitate to 

 make a distinct species of our bird without actual comparison of 

 specimens, were it not a known fact that species of this group 

 usually enjoy a very limited range. 



Sphenocercus sororius, mihi \^' S. formosce 6 ," Vo\%, 1866, 

 p. 122, uec Treron formosce, Swinh. op. cit. 1863, p. 396], $, 

 is grass-green on the forehead and under neck. Her upper 

 parts are of a duller and browner green, and devoid of the blue- 

 grey on the back and maroon-chestnut patch on shoulders and 

 wing-coverts. The third quill of this species is sinuated on 

 the edge of the inner web, as in most Treronine Pigeons. Dr. 

 Jerdon, however, says that such is not the case with the Indian 



