260 Mr. R. Swinhoe on Fnrmosan Ornithology. 



line of China, and the northernmost in those parts, so far as yet 

 observed, by the Yangtsze River. 



20. Alcedo bengalensis, Grael. Chinese, To-he-ang (Little 

 Fisher). 



The little " King of the Shrimps " is as common throughout 

 Formosa as in China. I have a large number of examples from 

 both countries, and they do not offer the slightest variation. It 

 ranges on the main from Canton to the Amoor, and is also 

 abundant in Japan, being everywhere a resident species. The 

 preceding and this are the only two species of Kingfisher that 

 I noted in Formosa. 



? , shot Sept. 3, 1861. (Esophagus ^ in. thick; proventriculus 

 ^. Gizzard somewhat heart-shaped, -^^ in. long by ^; the mus- 

 cular tendons scarcely observable ; epithelium very thin, wrinkled 

 longitudinally, stained light yellowish brown, and containing 

 fish-bones. 



21. TcHiTREA PRINCIPALIS (Temm.). 

 Muscipeta principalis, Temm. Faun. Jap. pi. 17 E. 

 M. atricaudata, Eyton. 



M. atriceps, Blyth. 



The only time I noted this bird was in April 1862, in Tamsuy, 

 when I procured a female. In the plains of the south-west 

 during the summer it did not occur ; hence I am of opinion that 

 it does not nidificate on our island, but is merely a straggler 

 during the migration season. Its summer habitat, so far as I 

 have yet ascertained, is Japan, whither it crosses by sea, together 

 with Xanthopygia narcissina, Schleg., from the coast of Fokien ; 

 for in April it suddenly appears, the males mostly in complete 

 plumage, with the central feathers fully acquired, at Canton, at 

 Amoy, and at Foochow. It is at that season abundant for a few 

 days, then suddenly disappears, not a single one remaining to 

 breed; and we do not meet with it till we reach Japan, In 

 making the sea-passage to Japan, some would naturally touch at 

 the coast of N.W. Formosa. North of Foochow, as far as Peking, 

 another species with a red tail, the T. incii, Gould, is supplied as 

 a summer visitor. I would hence infer, by continuing the line of 

 migration in a south-westerly direction, that the interior of Cochin 



