Mr. R. Swinlioe on tormosan Ornithology. 401 



further. A hunter crossed the ravine, and from the concealment 

 of the bushes had two more shots at it. The bird nevei'theless 

 escaped. We crossed the ravine, and walking past a banyan 

 perceived a commotion among its branches. Out came several 

 Green Doves. I knocked one over. It was a fine male Treron 

 formoscB. A little further on I bagged a female of the same 

 species. The iris of the dying bird had alternate rings of 

 bright purple and black, with an outer ring of blood-red. I 

 descended into a ravine under some lofty leafy trees. Some 

 green birds were hopping heavily about the top branches, very 

 slow in their movements, tame, and not scared at the noise of a 

 gun. I shot one, and picked up a Megalama nuchalis. Its iris 

 was chestnut; the feet pale grass-green. Dendrocittce were 

 passing from tree to tree with very undulating flight, and 

 Hypsipetes was chasing Zosterops. The Sparrows about the 

 mountain villages were the ordinary Passer montanus. 



In the afternoon we visited a delightful glen, with fine wood 

 all round it. Here Sibia auricularis was the commonest bird, 

 flying in parties one after the other along the high branches of 

 the trees. Its call-note was very like the sibilant note of a 

 Wren {Troglodgtes europceus), and its habits very like that of a 

 Tree-Garrulax. One would occasionally whistle to another. 

 One of my hunters put up an Oreoperdix, and found that it had 

 deposited an egg, which was white, and quite similar to the one 

 I had procured before. Bainbusicolae were crying all around us. 

 The Green Dove, too, we heard, and I then learned what the 

 Chinese meant by comparing its note to the shouting of women 

 to their pigs. It sounded like a man with a bad ear and a loud 

 voice attempting to coo like a dove. The noise was quite 

 startling. I procured a mature Turtur rupicolus (Pall.). Several 

 Crows {Co7'Vus colonorum) were flying about, and Garrulax 

 taivanus and Pomatorhinus musicus both abundant. In the 

 mud of the watercourse I detected the footprints of some large 

 Wader. The hunters said that they were made by the feet of 

 Cormorants; but there were no indications of the interdigital 

 web. They must have been those of the Black Stork {Ciconia 

 nigra) . A pair of dark Heron-like birds with red bills and legs 

 were seen by a friend on a former visit to the interior. From 



