Mr. R. Swinhoe on the Ornithology of Hainan, 343 



On the 20th February, at Taipingsze (Central Hainan), I 

 spied a soHtavy male Red Oriole, and, after much chasing from 

 one wood to another, at last secured it. On taking it into my 

 hand, from its blackened tail I thought I had got a new species. 

 Its iris was yellowish cream-colour. A few days later, on my 

 return to the same place, I was attracted by a bird singing to 

 himself in loud broken notes, hidden in a forked branch of a 

 high tree. I watched till 1 could see him, and brought down a 

 young male. I saw a second red male in the jungle at Yulin- 

 kan (South Hainan). 



My specimens are shorter in the wing and longer in the tail 

 than the Formosan bird ; and in the full-plumaged bird the black 

 of the neck appears to extend less far down the breast. 



Adult male. Length of wing, 5*7 ; tail, of 12 slightly gradu- 

 ated feathers, 4*125. Plumage as in P. ardens of Formosa, 

 except as regards the tail, which, instead of being entirely crim- 

 son, has black shafts to the feathers, the two middle ones being 

 washed with black, and the rest with their outer webs for the 

 most part black. 



Young male. Length of wing, 5'6; tail, 4*125. Head and 

 tibise blackish brown. Back brownish-red; scapulars, wings^ 

 sides of breast and belly, and axillaries brown. Throat, breast, 

 and belly white, with long blackish-brown spots. Rump, vent, 

 and a new feather or two on the breast crimson. Tail pale 

 crimson ; the two middle feathers entirely washed with brown, 

 the rest only on their outer webs; shafts of feathers black. 



I have a more advanced male from Formosa, with a black 

 head and crimson back, but still retaining the spots of the 

 under parts, in which the tail is more blackened than in the 

 young Hainan specimen. But all the Formosan birds in as 

 mature plumage as the Hainan adult have purely crimson tails. 

 In the Formosan bird the black disappears, in the Hainan bird 

 it intensifies, with age. * 



79. CopsYCHUs sAULARis (Linn.), 



Common about villages in the fiat open country of North and 

 Western Hainan. My specimens agree with the bird that is 

 found throughout China south of the Yangtsze, and with skins 



