386 Ml'. R. Swinhoe on Formusan Ornitholoyij. 



lateral feathers. Vent pale, broadly tipped with a pale glowing 

 rufous tint. Undershafts of wing and tail-feathers ochreous, the 

 underside of the white tips being washed with a })ale rufous glow. 



99. Garrulus taivanus, Gould, P. Z. S. 1862, p. 282. 



This small mountain species represents, in Formosa, the Jay 

 that frequents the hill countries of South China, from Canton to 

 Ningpo, G. sinensis, Gould. The Formosan Jay has a compara- 

 tively larger bill, and is at once distinguishable from its Chinese 

 congeners by its much smaller size, by its black frontal band 

 from nostril to nostril, by its whitish ring round the eye, by the 

 somewhat different arrangement of blue, white, and black tints 

 on the wings, and by the greater extension of white on the mar- 

 gins of primary quills. Though the members of this genus are 

 somewhat migratory, yet their peregrinations are always within 

 a limited sphere ; and wherever the Jay occurs in isolated loca- 

 lities, we meet with aberrations from the typical form. This 

 apparent rule in this interesting group is highly suggestive. 



I have only one pair from Formosa ; but the characters, which 

 I now proceed to define, are constant. 



Length 10| in. ; wing 6|3y^ tail 5 in. (of 12 feathers of nearly 

 equal length) ; tarse 1| ; bill along culmen 1 in., from rictus 1^. 

 General plumage light vinaceous, greyish on the back and sca- 

 pulars, and delicately barred on the crown with a deeper shade. 

 Rump-band and upper tail-coverts white. Tail black. Abdo- 

 men and vent white. Bill bluish grey on rather more than the 

 basal half; apical portion black. Feathers over the nostrils and 

 round the base of the bill black. A ring of white feathers round 

 the eye. Legs light ochreous brown, with brown claws. Irides 

 light clear blue. Quills black, the 2nd primary margined for 

 nearly its whole length with white, the 3rd to a less extent, the 

 4th less still, until the inner ones have scarce any indication of 

 it ; the secondaries with more than their basal half of the outer 

 webs having bars of white blending into deep blue and then 

 black, in consecutive order. The primary coverts and winglet 

 similarly barred, but more closely, the black bars being broader ; 

 the foremost secondary coverts bluish grey, finely barred with 

 indistinct black and blue strite. Lesser coverts vinaceous brown, 



