South Formosa and its Birds, 325 



cervinus, &c. The hunters, who had gone out again, brought, 

 besides birds already obtained, a female Tardus albiceps, with 

 head in moult. The man who shot this told me that there 

 was a flock of six or seven, and that he noticed the white 

 heads of the males. They had also Alcippe morrisonia, Cettia 

 canturiens, and a Spizixus cinereiceps in good plumage, 

 except that several of the tail-feathers were only a third 

 grown. 



November 17th. Fine. Out at dawn, with two hunters 

 and Ignacio, who were followed by two trained native dogs. 

 They beat the patches of sugar-cane in the plain ineffectually, 

 and we only saw one Pheasant, which was flushed out of a field 

 of ground-nuts when least expected. I shot a couple of Quail 

 {Turnix taigoor). Large numbers of Doves were on the 

 plain — Turtur chinensis and another, probably T. rupicolttf 

 — which had come down from the hills for a morning feed. 

 In beating the brushwood about the foot of Capiang Hill we 

 put up a covey of Bamboo Partridges [Bambusicola sono- 

 rivox), one of which I shot, and we also secured a little Scops 

 Owl. This bird, being only winged, I brought back to 

 Takow, but after being tended with great care, to my dis- 

 appointment, it escaped. It was probably Scops hambroecki. 

 Iris yellow ; plumage suffused with rusty red ; underparts 

 unspotted ; tarsi distinctly rufous and feathered to within ^ 

 inch of the foot. Size very small, probably 19-20 centimetres. 



One of the hunters unfortunately missed a Green Pigeon 

 [sp. inc.) a short way up the hill, which mishap much 

 annoyed me, as I was anxious to get one of these birds, and 

 hitherto had not even seen one. 



I was back at noon and spent the rest of the day preparing 

 birds. With a few common birds was brought in a female 

 Redstart {Ruticilla aurorea). Made my preparations to leave 

 Baugkimtsing early next morning, without much regret, as 

 the locality had hardly come up to my expectations. The 

 distance from the forest is too great to make Baugkimtsing 

 a good centre. The villagers, too, though they know the 

 country well, are of little use as collectors. In order to 

 work this part of Formosa successfully it would be absolutely 



