402 Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formusan Ornithology. 



his description of them I concluded that they must have been 

 the Black Stork or some cognate species of Ciconia. They 

 were not known to the residents of the interior ; and I thence 

 infer that they were only straggling winter wanderers. 



By the side of a mountain-stream I saw a Butorides javanica; 

 and a Cormorant, I think the ordinary species, came flying 

 down on rapid wing. The guides shouted " There is the Stork 

 you so much want/' This was on the 22nd. We were march- 

 ing over the rough path by the side of a torrent, and were, on 

 our guard against treacherous attacks from any skulking savage, 

 all armed with guns, matchlocks, or spears. We took a long 

 rest under the shade of a tree hard by a wood. Green Doves 

 appeared. One of the hunters dropped away and bagged a 

 male. It was the white-bellied species, Sphenocercus sororius 

 [antea, p. 311]. In mature specimens the male has a fine glow 

 of buff on the breast and forehead. By the banks of the stream 

 occasional raised patches of stones covered with coarse grass 

 occurred. In these lay hid Goatsuckers {Caprimulgus stictomus), 

 which fluttered up before us to drop again into the grass a few 

 paces further on. As they steal along on silent wing at night 

 they utter occasionally a subdued croak. 



On the 24th of February I spied a Graucalus reoc-pineti sitting 

 on a high tree over my head. His notes sounded like " queer- 

 queer" uttered nasally. I also observed a pair of Parus 

 insperatus, in manners a good deal like the Great and Coal 

 Titmice. 



About twenty miles from Takow, on the plains, I saw a 

 Corvus colonorum. This is the first instance that has come 

 under my notice of this bird occurring away from the mountain- 

 range. 



I have just picked out a few jottings from my journal on the 

 birds seen in the interior. I have not now time to spin a yarn 

 on my travels. This I must reserve to some future date. I 

 left Takow on the 11th of March and on the 13th reached Amoy, 

 where I am now a fixture for some time to come. 



Through the kind assistance of Mr. Thomas Watters, who is 

 Acting-Consul in my place at Taiwan, I am able to keep my 

 hunters in Formosa still at work ; and it is through his good 



