384 Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 



Taiwanfoo, where it is a resident species, but rarely in the hilly 

 parts of the North-west. It is identical with the race that occurs 

 throughout China and Japan. 



98. Urocissa cerulea, Gould, P. Z. S. 1862, p. 282. 



Soon after my arrival at Tamsuy, some hunters that I had sent 

 into the interior returned with the two long tail-feathers of a 

 beautiful bird which they said they had shot, but were obliged 

 to eat, as, owing to the heat of the weather, it was getting 

 tainted. They called it the Tung-bay Sivanniun, or Long-tailed 

 Mountain-Nymph. I saw, from the peculiar form of the feathers, 

 that the bird from which they had been extracted must have been 

 a Urocissa, and, from their bright blue tint and large white tips, 

 I felt sure they belonged to some fine new species. I was much 

 excited, and offered large sums for specimens, and consequently 

 soon received an ample supply, which fully confirmed my belief 

 that the Formosan Urocissa was a peculiar and beautiful form. 



The Mountain-Nymph is by no means an uncommon bird in 

 the large camphor-forests of the mountain-range. It is there 

 to be met with in small parties of six or more, flying from ti-ee 

 to tree, brandishing about their handsome tail-appendages, and 

 displaying their brightly contrasted black-and-azure plumage 

 adorned with white, and their red bill and legs, among the deep 

 foliage of the wood. They are shy birds, soon taking alarm at 

 the approach of a stranger, giving warning to each other in loud 

 notes, and then gliding away one after another with a straight 

 flight into an adjoining tree (the flight being executed with short 

 quick flaps of the wing, while the body and tail are held nearly 

 horizontal). They feed on wild figs, mountain berries, and in- 

 sects, chiefly Melolonthine Coleoptera. I had no oj)portunities of 

 observing the nesting of this bird, nor the plumage of the young, 

 which in the U. sinensis differ considerably from that of the 

 adult. 



In the large size and bulkiness of its bill, this species is more 

 nearly affine to the Urocissa magnirostris of Tenasserim than to 

 U. sinensis of China ; but its tail is shorter than that of either, 

 and its plumage is entirely different to the similarly distributed 

 tints of tlie four other described species. 



