PSAROPHOLUS ARDENS, Swinh. 



Red Oriole. 



Psaropholus ardens, Swinh. in Ibis, 1862, p. 363, pi. xiii. ; 1863, p. 293; and 1866, pp. 297 and 398. 



var. nigellicauda, Swinh. in Ibis, 1870, p. 342. 

 Analcipus ardens, G. R. Gray, Hand-list of Birds, part i. p. 290. 



I deem this lovely bird one of the most interesting of Mr. Swinhoe's many important discoveries, since it is 

 still more beautiful than its Himalayan ally, the Psaropholus Trailll Its native habitat is the island of 

 Formosa and (if the bird he has named Psaropholus ardens, var. nigellicauda, is merely a local variety, as it 

 is now supposed to be) the island of Hainan. If there is any difference in the size of the three, the 

 Himalayan P. Trailli is the largest, the Formosan P. ardens somewhat smaller than that bird, and the 

 supposed variety from Hainan still a little less in all its admeasurements. 



These red-coloured birds from Formosa and Hainan are intensely bright when compared with the 

 maroon-hued species from the Himalayas, and are thereby distinguishable from it at a glance ; while in every 

 other respect they are very similar. 



The following notes respecting the Red Oriole are extracted from Mr. Swinhoe's " Notes on the Birds of 

 the Islands of Formosa and Hainan " : — 



" This bird is an inhabitant of the mountain-ranges of Formosa, where it frequents the jungly bush of the 

 exalted valleys, and displays its gaudy tints among the gigantic leafy boughs of the far-famed Lauras 

 camphora, which towers at intervals among its entangled fellows of the wood. In summer it resorts to the 

 highest ranges, some of which are perennially covered with snow. In winter it returns to the more 

 accessible mountains bounding the Chinese territory, merely changing its residence from a lower to a higher 

 elevation, and vice versa, according to the season. In habits, the Red Oriole nearly approaches its allies of 

 the Yellow group, and feeds, like them, on berries, chiefly those of figs. Its notes are loud and harsh. 



" In a trip to the Formosan mountains I put up at a village, and at an early hour strolled up the hill to a 

 clump of fine trees ; on the bare branches of a large Bombax malabaricum I noticed a Psaropholus ardens, its 

 bright crimson plumage making a lovely contrast with the dull-red flowers of the tree, and the light-green 

 bursting leaves. I rushed back for a gun, and shot him. He showed still the whitish underparts and 

 streaks of immaturity ; but the great question was solved. I had accepted hearsay evidence that its iris was 

 red ; I now found that it is white, like that of its congener P. Trailli. The white is encircled near the 

 eyelids with a black rim ; the eyelids are lead-colour; the bill bright French-blue ; tongue yellowish, with a 

 broad bifid black tip. The stomach was full of small figs, either of the banyan or some allied species. 

 When picked up, the wounded bird screeched just as Yellow Orioles do. 



" All my specimens were procured near Tamsuy in March and April 1862." 



Respecting the bird found in Hainan, and which Mr. Swinhoe named provisionally nigellicauda, he says : — 



" On the 20th of February, 1868, at Taipingsze, in Central Hainan, I spied a solitary male Red Oriole, and, 

 after much chasing from one wood to another, at last secured it. On taking it into my hand, I thought, from 

 the black hue of its tail, that 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 the forked branch of a high tree. I watched till I could see him, and brought down a young male. I 

 saw a second red male in the jungle at Yulinkan, in South Hainan. 



" These specimens are shorter in the wing and longer in the tail than the Formosan Psaropholus ardens; 

 and in the full-plumaged example the black of the neck appears to extend less far down." 



"Male. — Head, neck, wings, and tibial feathers black ; remainder of the plumage of a fine cochineal-red, 

 paler on the tail ; bill light cobalt-blue; skin round the eye violet-grey; iris white; legs leaden grey ; soles 



and claws dingy. 



"The female has the head, sides, and back of the neck black ; wings very dark brown ; back reddish cin- 

 namon, deepening into scarlet on the upper tail-coverts ; the under tail-coverts are also scarlet ; two central 

 tail-feathers brown, the remainder brown on their outer webs and scarlet on the inner ones ; under surface 

 broadly striated with black and dull white ; bill, legs, and feet as in the male, but not so vivid." 



The Plate represents the two sexes, of the natural size. 



