Birds of Fohkien. 59 



26. Phasianus ellioti Swinhoe. 



La Touche obtained a specimen at Kuatun. Last winter 

 my man saw the dried body of one in a native house at or 

 near Yamakan. The owner told him it came from Kieh 

 Ning Fu; where_, according to him, it is not uncommon. 



'Z7. Genn^us nycthemerus (Linn.). 



Silver Pheasants appear to be very common all round 

 about Chiug Fung. A man at Yamakan told my collectors 

 that they shoot these birds at times from huts made of 

 branches, in which the sportsman spends the night and 

 shoots the birds at dawn as they come to pick up the food 

 scattered about to attract them. The shot birds are allowed 

 to remain where they fall, and seven or eight are sometimes 

 obtained in a morning. They also shoot the birds at roost 

 by torchlight. 



28. Akboricola ricketti Grant, Bull. B. O. C. viii. 

 p. xlvii. 



I have, in all, obtained eight specimens of this Hill- 

 Partridge from Yamakan and Ah Ch'ung. Of tliese seven 

 are males ; the eighth is not sexed, owing to shot-damage. 



My man describes the note as a low " goo, goo, goo," He 

 says they keep on the ground in dense underAvood all dav, 

 but roost in trees. Previous to flying up to their roosts 

 they are very noisy, uttering their note seven or ei^ht 

 times in succession, with increasing rapidity and in an 

 ascending scale. They appear, from his account, to be far 

 from uncommon. The stomach of one he brought to me 

 contained two small acorns, the stones of some berry, a few 

 small univalves, and remains of insects. 



29. Ceriornis CABOTi Gould. 



The natives at Yamakan described a bird that they say 

 occurs in the forest^ which my collector thinks must be this 

 Tragopan, but as yet no specimen has been obtained. At 

 Kuatun it must be very common, as my men brought me 

 14 skins last autumn. All but two were females; the ex- 

 ceptions were young males in an interesting transition stage 

 of plumage. One of these is now in the Natural History 

 Museum at South Kensington. 



