Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Omithologi/. 305 



recognizable by its white head. It has a short flitting flight, 

 and frequently springs into the air some twenty or thirty feet, 

 uttering its well-marked notes, tee-tee-teup-tevp. In June 1857, 

 when circumnavigating Formosa in H.M.S. ' Inflexible,' I first 

 made the acquaintance of this species at Sawo, and afterwards at 

 Kelung. It was then its breeding-season, and the numbers that 

 abounded about the long grass were uncommonly lively ; but its 

 very diminutive size and activity precluded my obtaining more 

 than one specimen of it. This I described the same year, at a 

 meeting of the North China Branch of the Asiatic Society, under 

 the above name. In Tamsuy I found it very locally distributed, 

 and much rarer than C. cursitans. It was only after great 

 difficulty that, through the aid of my constable, I was enabled to 

 add another example to my collection, and the high and remote 

 localities it inhabited prevented my obtaining any facts as to its 

 nesting or other habits. I think I am right in laying down its 

 habitat in Formosa as restricted to the hills on the eastern and 

 northern portion of the island, Tamsuy being probably its most 

 southerly range on the western side. 



The feathers of the tail of this species broaden to their ends, and 

 are graduated, the external one being '46 in. shorter than the cen- 

 tral. The first quill of the wing is very short, the third and fourth 

 being nearly equal and longest. Both our species of this genus 

 have twelve feathers in the tail, and so approximate to the Sali- 

 caria rather than to theDrymceca and Prinits, \\h\ch they resemble 

 in many respects. 



67. Calamoherpe orientalis, Bp. Consp. p. 285. 



Salicaria turdina orientalis, Schleg. Faun. Japon. p. 50. 



Acrocephalus magnirostris, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1860, p. 51. 



This Eastern form of Reed-Thrush visits Formosa in summer, 

 and may then be found in all wet localities abounding in tall 

 reeds. It has a most powerful and polyglot voice, and delights 

 all day, and often greater part of the night, in making itself 

 heard. I have traced it in China as far north as Shanghai ; and 

 it also occurs in Japan. In summer it seeks more southerly 

 latitudes. 



VOL. V. Y 



