403 Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 



roof of a savage^s hut, uttering his crowing defiant note, while 

 he strutted and threw up his tail like a rooster. I offered re- 

 wards and encouraged my men to do their utmost to procure 

 me specimens of this bird, and I was so far successful that I 

 managed to obtain a pair; but in my trip to the interior it was 

 in vain that I sought to get a view of it in its native haunts, 

 and to make acquaintance with it in a state of nature. 



The female was brought to me on the 1st of April, soon after 

 it was shot, — the heat of the weather compelling the hunters to 

 skin it before they could reach me. It was, however, quite fresh 

 enough to enable me to note the tints of its soft parts. " Naked 

 patch on cheek large and conspicuously red. Bill dark greyish 

 brown. Legs a clear vermilion, the scale-joints and sole-pads, 

 as well as the claws, being dingy yellowish brown. Tail rounded, 

 and consisting of sixteen feathers." 



The fresh skin of the male arrived on the 11th April. My 

 hunters had taken this bird alive ; but it battered itself so, that 

 they were obliged to kill it to save its feathers. The cheek-skin 

 was of a bright crimson. Bill blackish grey, the apical half 

 paling into ochreous brown colour. Legs bright pink-vermilion ; 

 soles a light dirty ochreous; toes the same, patched with blackish. 

 To give my readers an idea of the plumage of this beautiful bird, 

 I cannot do better than extract Mr. Gould^s remarks on it from 

 the ' Proceedings ' : — 



" Male. Forehead black, gradually blending from the crown 

 into the snowy-white lanceolate plumes which form a slight 

 crest and continue in a narrow line down the nape of the neck. 

 Back snowy white, offering a strong contrast to the narrow line 

 with which it is bounded on each side, and the rich fiery chestnut 

 of the scapularies ; lower part of the back, rump, and upper tail- 

 coverts intense velvety black, broadly margined with shining- 

 steel or bluish black, these scale-like feathers gradually becoming 

 of a larger size and of a more uniform black as they approach 

 the tail-feathers. Wings blackish brown, the greater and lesser 

 coverts fringed with green ; two centre tail-feathers snowy white, 

 the remainder black ; the somewhat elongated feathers of the 

 chest and flanks black, with shining blue reflexions ; thighs and 

 under tail-coverts dull black. Legs and spurs blood-red, except 



