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



XXIV. — On the Ornithology of Hainan. 

 By Robert Swinhoe, F.Z.S. &c.* 



(Plate X.) 

 [Concluded from p. 2oG.] 



77 ? Oriolus chinensis, Linn. 



I introduce this Oriole into my list on the authority of Pere 

 Michel Chagot, the French priest, who resides at Liugshanshe, 

 near the capital city. To this gentleman, Monsgr. Guillemin, 

 the French bishop at Canton, had given me a letter of introduc- 

 tion. I found him in Chinese queue and costume, living in a 

 wretched hovel, part of a small farm-house in a poor village 

 about ten miles from Kiungchowfoo. He had been seven years 

 in the island without leaving it, and had the cure of the western 

 division of the north of the island, while another Frenchman 

 had charge of the eastern division. The two met once in 

 three months. The mission once had chapels in the city ; 

 but they had long since been seized ; and the priests driven 

 away. M. Chagot did his best to be hospitable ; but I must 

 confess that notwithstanding all his efforts, his board and his 

 quarters showed small cheer. The life of a priest in Hainan 

 is not an enviable one. After thus introducing my informant 

 I will tell what he told me about the Oriole. He said that 

 in the summer one of their commonest birds was a yellow bird 

 about the size of a Thrush. This, I should think, was pretty 

 certain to be the species that summers in China. We did not 

 leave Hainan till the 4th of April ; and up to that date there 

 were no signs of the Oriole. 



78. PsAROPHOLUs ARDENs, Swinhoe (Ibis, 1862, p. 363, 

 pi. xiii.), var. nigellicauda. 



* I find I have wrongly referred {supra, p. 88) the small horned Owl of 

 Hainan to EphiaUes lettia (Ilodgs.). It is more nearly related to E. (/riscus, 

 Jerd., from which, however, it differs in its proportions, by its much longer 

 tarsus and longer toes, its much deeper and richer colouring, the want of 

 the white spot on the imderneck, and in having its tarsal feathers 

 reddish brown barred and mottled with dark brown. I will distinguish 



it as E. UMBRATIXIS. 



