208 Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 



with the exception of Spizaetus orientalis, which later research 

 will doubtless discover on the main. Of the Owls, the Ninox is 

 also Chinese and Japanese, the Scops semitorques of general dis- 

 tribution throughout continental Asia, whereas the other two 

 are peculiar to Formosa. I cannot undertake to discuss each 

 group separately; my remarks must be more cursory. As in the 

 mammalia, so among the birds, two facts appear pretty patent — 

 that the animals of the plains and low country are, for the most 

 part, identical with Chinese species, while those from the moun- 

 tains of the interior are more of a Himalayan type, and in some 

 cases too similar to be separated. In some of the birds of the 

 plains, isolation has worked variation more or less marked. In 

 the Lanius shah, for example, it is perhaps at its minimum ; in 

 Drymoica extensicauda it is a little stronger ; in Phasianus tor- 

 quatus it is noticeable, and that is all; in Budytes flava it causes 

 a curious reversion to what may be considered the typical colour, 

 that of the British variety rayi ; in Leucodiophron taivanum it 

 has worked out a distinct species, which, nevertheless, occa- 

 sionally in the old, but more frequently in the young plumage 

 shows indications of one common origin with the Chinese bird ; 

 in the Pomatorhinus musicus we have a greater advance still, if 

 we can suppose it to be descended from the much smaller P. 

 stridulus of China*. 



Among the birds of the lower hills we have the Bambusicola 

 sonorivox, which isolation has varied in distribution of tints, but 

 not in voice or habits, from its near ally, the B. sphenura of 

 China. In the mountain avifauna we have a long series only 

 slightly connected with Chinese forms, with a strong tendency to 

 the Himalayan, and in some cases either identical or so closely 

 related as scarcely to justify separation. This fact is, I think, 

 less singular than would at first appear, simply because we know 

 next to nothing of the ornithologyof theChinese mountain -ranges 

 of corresponding height to those in Formosa. Of Himalayan 

 type there are no less than seventeen species, one of which (the 

 Herpornis xantholeuca) is, in my opinion, identical with the Nepa- 

 lese bird, and another {Alcippe morrisonia) has barely separable 



* P. ruficoUis, Hodgs., apjjears to be more nearly related to the For- 

 mosan bird. — R. S. 



