Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 257 



heavy, and the birds seemed in high spirits at the return of fine 

 weather. They fluttered from branch to branch, and as they 

 regained a footing, rocked backwards and forwards before re- 

 covering their balance. It was in April, and they were all 

 paired, the male being always distinguishable by his larger 

 size and longer tail. In pairs they sang, or rather twittered, 

 their notes kee-wee-kee, like sounds that might be produced by 

 some metal instrument sadly out of tune. The male loudly 

 sang his bar, and the female followed on a lower key. The 

 male then fluttered his wings and began again ; the female 

 followed suit. In this manner the whole clump of tall, graceful 

 bamboos looked alive with these birds, and resounded with their 

 strange notes. Some pairs would start away and pursue one 

 another, at first, with a smooth, skimming flight; then in an 

 excited manner they would stagger along and, fluttering their 

 wings, sing lustily their notes of love. 



18. CoTYLE SINENSIS (J. E. Gray) : 111. Ind. Zool. t. 35. fig. 3. 



Hirundo brevicaudata, MacClell. 



This small, grey-breasted, short- tailed species is a summer 

 visitant to all suitable localities in the south of China, and is also 

 found in all parts of Formosa, frequenting the steep sandy banks 

 of rivers, into which it bores long galleries, constructing at the end 

 of these its cup-shaped nest, and depositing therein three white 

 eggs. Its winter migrations extend to the plains of Hindostan, 

 where, curiously enough, it is reported by observers to nest again 

 in the heart of winter (see Horsfield and Moore's List of Birds 

 in the East Indian Museum, i. p. 96). This is, I believe, the 

 only well-authenticated fact recorded of this long-suspected habit 

 in migratory birds. It visits Formosa in April, and leaves again 

 in October. 



Length 4j^ in. ; wing 3^ ; tail 1^^, subfurcate. Upper parts 

 greyish hair-brown ; neck and breast much paler, dark on the 

 sides of the breast. Wings and tail dark hair-brown ; axillaries 

 hair-brown. Belly and vent white. Bill, legs, and claws purphsh 

 brown; the feathered tuft in the joint between the tarsi and 

 hind toe is wanting. 



Some fifteen miles up the Tamsuy River, in a long sand-bank, I 



VOL. V. T 



