Mr. R. Swinhoe on the Ornithology of Hainan. 91 



makes its nest in the caves of certain small islands off the 

 southerly coast of Hainan. It adds that, in autumn, when the 

 birds desert their nests, the nests are collected and sold for 

 food, and that epicures esteem them much more highly than those 

 imported from the Straits of Malacca. The builders of such 

 nests must surely be this large Spine-tailed Swift. We passed 

 close to some of these islands, but looked in vain for the birds. 

 They had not yet returned to their breeding-places. None of 

 the nests were to be purchased in the various markets we visited 

 in Hainan towns ; but out of a pirate the gunboat captured, off 

 Lingshuy, we took a parcel of rather large gelatinous nests, 

 which possibly were collected from the neighbouring island 

 rocks ; but we could procure no satisfactory evidence to show 

 that they were. I therefore was forced, with much reluctance, to 

 abandon the determination of this interesting question to the 

 next adventurer who has the good fortune to go over my ground. 



21. ?Merops PHiLipPENSis, Linn. 



A friend of mine, who visited the Chunlan river in the Wen- 

 chang district (N.E. Hainan) later in the season, on a former 

 pirate-hunting expedition, tells me that he observed a large party 

 of green-coloured birds, which he took to belong to a species of 

 Parrot (!), going in and out of holes in the sand-banks of this 

 river. The Philippine Bee-eater is the only species of this 

 genus that has been observed in China, one specimen having 

 been obtained out of a small number some years ago at Swa- 

 tow ; and I refer the Hainan bird, therefore, with a query, to 

 this species. I did not meet with the bird myself. 



22. Upupa CEYLONENSis, Rcichcnb. U. nigripennis, Gould. 

 In Hainan we saw not our European friend U. ejmps, which 



occurs in tolerable abundance, from Canton to Peking, on the 

 China coast ; but here the richer-coloured " Bird of the Le 

 matrons,'^ as the Chinese of the island name it — the U. ceylo- 

 nensis of Southern India and Burmah — took its place. I found 

 it common everywhere, as common about the orchards and gar- 

 dens beneath the walls of Kiungchow as in the forests of the 

 interior or the tangled jungles of the south. It is a tame, in- 

 offensive bird, and as much a favourite with the Hainan 



