35 i Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ^c. 



this beautiful creature^ as well as of some other of the choice 

 novelties from this island, for transmission to England. 



1 have at last received the Sixteenth Part of Mr. Gould's 

 ' Birds of Asia/ containing the Formosan series. I regret to 

 see that in the fine plates no attention has been paid to the style 

 of the scenery, a very correct idea of which might have been 

 obtained from my figures of the aborigines, which were executed 

 by an artist who had himself been here, and who inserted the 

 landscapes from his own sketch-book. The grand mistake is 

 the introduction in two of the plates of the cocoa-nut palm, 

 which I had taken particular pains to explain was not indige- 

 nous to this country. About thirty miles ofi', we have lately 

 discovered one solitary tree of this species ; but it is the only 

 known instance of its existence in the island, and was probably 

 planted. The only palliation I can think of is the plea offered 

 by the editor of a well-known illustrated newspaper in a similar 

 case. A view taken at Peshawur, in the North-West Provinces 

 of India, was sent him by an amateur artist for insertion. 

 When it appeared in print, the landscape was found ornamented 

 with a conspicuous cocoa-nut tree, not one of which grows in 

 that region. The artist wrote to remonstrate with the Editor 

 for not adhering faithfully to his original. The Editor replied 

 that " the British public demanded a cocoa-nut ! " 



I am, &c., 



Robert Swinhoe. 



Takow, Formosa, 1 April, 1865. 



Sir, — I ought to have to say something of the Swatow 



birds ; for Consul Caine, at that port, still exerts himself in our 

 cause ; but, unfortunately, his parcel has this time miscarried. I 

 must in consequence confine myself to Formosa. The last part 

 of March has been unusually cool, with strong northerly winds, 

 squalls, and cloudy weather. On the 22nd we were out for a 

 long walk round Whaleback, an island-like hill in the broad 

 alluvial plain between the high Apes' Hill and the inner moun- 

 tain-range. This hill looks like a thick stratum of earth well 



