1862.] MR. GOULD ON NEW BIRDS FROM FORMOSA. 285 



barred with buff ; lateral tail-feathers nearly uniform deep chestnut ; 

 bill horn-colour ; space surrounding the eye and the legs red. 



Total length, 18 -inches; bill, li; wing, 8^ ; tail, 8; tarsi, 3. 



Remark. — This exceedingly beautiful species is one of the most 

 remarkable novelties I have had the good fortune to describe ; in 

 size it is somewhat smaller than the Genneeus nychthemerus, which it 

 resembles in its red wattles and in the form of its tail, while in its 

 strong legs, the scaly stiff feathers of the lower part of its back, the 

 red-and-white colouring of the anterior portion of its upper surface, 

 and in its steel-blue crest it more closely assimilates, in my opinion, 

 to the members of the genus Euplocamus ; and with that group, the 

 Fire-backs, I have accordingly associated it. 



In dedicating this fine bird to Mr. Swinhoe, I feel that I am only 

 paying a just compliment to a gentleman who must ever rank among 

 the foremost of those travellers who have enriched ornithology by 

 their numerous Eastern discoveries. 



Genus Bambusicola, Gould. 



Generic characters. — Bill moderately long, and very similar in 

 form to that of Perdix ; nostrils covered by an operculum ; wings 

 moderately long, round, and concave, the fifth primary the longest ; 

 tail somewhat more lengthened than in Perdix, rounded or inclined 

 to a wedge-shape ; tarsi rather long, and armed with a well-defined 

 but blunt spur ; toes longer than in Perdix, the two lateral ones 

 equal in length, and united at their base by a membrane ; hind toe 

 rather long and free. 



Sexes alike, as in Caccahis, but the female destitute of a spur. 



This is a very distinct form among the Gallinaceae, the species of 

 which, so far as we yet know, are only two in number, namely, the 

 present bird and the Galloperdix sphenurus of China. Both evince 

 a predilection for forests of bamboo, which circumstance has suggested 

 the generic appellation. In point of affinity they equally approach 

 the members both of the genera Perdix and Caccahis. 



Bambusicola sonorivox, Gould. 



Male : crown of the head rusty brown, each feather obscurely 

 barred and freckled with blackish brown ; lores, ear-coverts, chest, 

 back of the neck, and chest grey, each feather minutely freckled with 

 blackish brown ; back and rump olive, each feather minutely freckled 

 with blackish brown ; those of the back, nearest the mantle, largely 

 blotched with deep chestnut ; these chest-marks also extend over the 

 shoulders, near the tips of which is a lanceolate spot of white ; a 

 similar but more obscure mark also occupies the sides of the wing- 

 coverts, but, instead of being white, it is pale fawn-colour ; greater 

 wing-coverts chestnut in the centre, then black, fringed with deep 

 buff; primaries blackish brown externally, margined with reddish 

 chestnut ; two middle tail-feathers freckled brown, buff, and black ; 

 the remainder deep chestnut-brown ; abdomen rich cinnamon, with 



