Mr. R, Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 387 



broadly tipped with a rufous hue of the same. The rest of the 

 wing black. Undershafts of quills and rectrices pale ochreous 

 brown. 



100. Dendrocitta sinensis, var. Formosa. 



In China I never had the good fortune to meet with this 

 interesting form, though doubtless it must occur in some of the 

 interior hills. In the inner ranges of the Formosan mountains 

 it was common enough, rarely if ever descending to the cleared 

 hills or the lowlands. The Formosan bird offers a few distinc- 

 tions, but they are too trifling to be regarded as specific. It has 

 a less bulky bill, the black frontal band is much narrower, and 

 the throat is never so black ; but in general style of colouring it 

 is so similar to the Indian bird, that it is impossible to separate 

 them. 



Bill and legs greyish black ; claws brown. Crown, hindneck, 

 rump, and upper tail-coverts bluish grey. Lores and frontal 

 band brownish black. Neck, sides of neck, and breast light 

 greyish chocolate-brown, deeper on the cheeks and throat, and 

 paling on the flanks and belly to almost white. Axillaries and 

 tibise deep blackish brown. Vent a fine rufous bufl". Back and 

 scapularies clear yellow chocolate-brown. Wings a fine glossy 

 black, duller on the primaries, across which near their bases a bar 

 of white runs, commencing on the inner web of the 2nd quill, and 

 widening as it runs. Tail composed of twelve greatly graduated 

 feathers, broad, and cut nearly square at their ends, with the tips of 

 the shafts slightly projecting ; the two central ones black on about 

 the apical half, the remainder bluish grey, but the proportions 

 of these two colours vary in difi'erent individuals : the rest of the 

 rectrices black, with a little grey at their bases. — Length 13 in.; 

 wing 5g ; tail 7\. 



The females appear to be rather duller-coloured than the 

 males, but they are otherwise similar. 



An interesting account of this bird and its nesting-habits is 

 given in the Catalogue of Birds in E. I. C. Museum, vol. ii. 

 p. 569, to which I would refer my readers. 



101. Megal^jvia NUCHALis, Gould, P. Z. S. 1862, p. 283. 

 The only species of this genus known from South China is 



