Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 395 



birds, we find the specimens so variable, and running so mueli 

 one into the other, as to make it next to impossible to draw up 

 definite distinguishing characters, and to lead one almost to 

 suppose that the various races interbreed. Mr. Blyth has kindly 

 looked over my many Cuckoos from China and Formosa, 

 and declares that the majority of those from Amoy, and all 

 from Peking, belong to C. canorus. These I had noted in all 

 my previous papers as C. striatus, with the statement that the 

 note of our bird was identical with that of the English Cuckoo. 

 I must, however, in justice to myself, declare that the mistake 

 occurred through the wrong identification by Mr. Blyth of a 

 skin of C. canorus, sent from Amoy, before that gentleman had 

 studied the Cuckoo-group so well as he has since done. At 

 Amoy Cuckoos come to us merely on their hasty passage in their 

 vernal and autumnal migrations, and we therefore have seldom 

 an opportunity of hearing their notes. I have, however, in the 

 interior of the country, near Amoy, watched a Cuckoo which 

 uttered quite a peculiar note. Of this bird I possess one speci- 

 men, which Mr. Blyth identifies as the C. micro'pterus, Gould. 

 I have another from the same locality set down by the same 

 authority as the C. himalayanus,Y\^ox% (see Gould^s Cent.), which 

 equals C. poliocephalus. To this last our North-Formosan bird 

 is most closely allied, but is bigger, with a larger and longer 

 bill, and with the whole of the breast bluish grey. As all the 

 four specimens I possess from Formosa agree in these pecu- 

 liarities, I have thought it right to keep them, for the present 

 at least, separate from the Chinese bird. I believe the Formosan 

 bird is a summer visitant only. All my skins of this race were 

 procured, in April, in the North of Formosa; and as I did not pro- 

 cure it in the S.W., I have named it after the northernmost 

 district, Kelung. In the proportions of their wings and tails 

 the specimens vary, but the males are always decidedly larger 

 than females. 



S. Bill along culmen 1 in. ; along base of lower mandible 1-15. 

 Total length 13 in.; wing 7-7 ; tail 6*6. Upper mandible and 

 apical three-tenths of lower blackish brown. Basal edge of upper 

 and remainder of lower orange-yellow, the latter tinged with green 

 and dingy. Inside of mouth orange. Rim round eye orange- 



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