Mr. R. Swinhoe on the Ornithology of Hainan. 85 



5. Spilornis rutherfordi, sp. n. 



On the 19th of February, as we were journeying from Shuy- 

 wei-sze (Central Hainan), my party made a halt at a wayside 

 house adjoining a wood. I got out of my chair and wandered 

 among the trees. I had not gone far when out bustled an 

 Eagle from close over my head. I brought him down, and 

 found that I had shot an immature Spilornis. The country 

 from this place to Tai-ping-sze was one succession of fine tim- 

 ber-woods, consisting chiefly of large liquidambar-trees, or of 

 various species of figs. Cultivated land occurred in patches 

 between. I had got into the home of the Spotted Snake-Eagle. 

 The next day I saw two or three of them soaring in circles high 

 up in the air, and uttering a squeal-like scream. Such a fal- 

 setto note from so big a bird did not seem possible. The cir- 

 cles they described were not of great diameter. Presently one 

 made a sudden stoop, and alighted on the top bough of a high tree. 

 It showed no signs of alarm as I walked deliberately under the 

 tree and shot it. 1 picked up an adult bird so much smaller 

 than the birds I had obtained before at Formosa and Amoy, 

 that I made sure that 1 had got S. bido. I shot two more 

 adults that day with equal ease ; and at the same place, on my 

 way back, I got a fourth adult. I did not observe the bird in 

 any other part of Hainan. Out of the stomachs of those I pro- 

 cured were taken bits of snakes and grasshoppers. Their irides 

 were bright yellow, their cere and orbits deep yellow, and their 

 legs and toes dingy ochreous-yellow, with black claws. 



Mr. J. H. Gurney, on seeing a Hainan bird, said at once 

 that it was distinct from S. bido, from its showing fine bars on 

 the breast and under parts, which the Malayan species never 

 has. He believed he had the same species from Siam, collected 

 by the late M. Mouhot at a place in that country called 

 Pachebouri. He sent to Norwich for the Siamese specimen 

 and some others ; and we compared them with my series of the 

 Hainan race, and with others in my collection from Formosa, 

 Amoy, the Himalayas, and Java. We made out the following 

 measurement ; : — 



