8740 



Birds. 



with a disgusting odour, and swarms with lice, and is therefore not a 

 very enticing bird to any one possessed of ordinary sensibilities. 



4. Falco peregrinus, L. A fine male of this species was brought 

 to me at Tamsuy, on the 20th March. It was quite fresh, only just 

 having been killed by a native some miles up the river. I had much 

 difficulty in inducing him to part with it, as he wanted the quill- 

 feathers for a fan, and was particularly anxious to make " chow-chow" 

 of its flesh. This specimen measured 16 inches; wing 12^ inches; 

 tail 6 inches. Apical third of bill blackish indigo, fading and blend- 

 ing with the yellowish on the basal portion of the bill ; cere and skin 

 round the eye chrome-yellow ; iris deep brown ; legs bright chrome- 

 yellow, with black claws. Stomach empty. In the membranes that 

 enclosed the air-cavities over the kidneys were two or three long and 

 a few small whitish ascarides ; the largest measured about 11 inches 

 long by 1-twelfth of an inch broad. This bird, like the Amoy variety, 

 is rather darker on the upper parts than the generality of European 

 peregrines ; but its under parts are very pale, and only scantily 

 spotted and barred with black. Mr. Gurney considers ours identical 

 with the European bird. 



5. Tinnunculus japonicus, Schleg. Almost every country has its 

 kestrel ; and where it occurs it is generally the commonest of all 

 falcons. In Formosa this rule also obtains. One could seldom take 

 a long walk without observing a windhover or two, so frequently true 

 to its provincial name. At Tamsuy, on the top of the old square-built 

 Dutch fort, which has stood the wreck of time for the last two cen- 

 turies, a pair of kestrels made their home. Wandering about the face 

 of the country during the day, in the evening they were regular in 

 their return ; and we were sure to see them, just as it began to grow 

 dark, drop carelessly into one of the banyan-bushes that spring from 

 the sides of the fort, and quietly disappear for the night. 



6. Spizaetus orientalis, Temm. 8$ Schleg. Faun. Japon. pi. 3. 



7. Micronisus gularis, Schleg. Faun. Jap. 



8. Circus spilonotus, Kaup. - I observed a pair of harriers beating 

 over the rush-grown delta of the Tamsuy River, above the gorge, in 

 March. I watched them for some time, but was unable to get within 

 shot of them. The male appeared of a pied plumage, but the female 

 was brown. I concluded, therefore, that it must have been the spe- 

 cies that prevails in the neighbourhood of Amoy, rather than the true 

 C. melanoleucos, Gmel., which ranges in Asia from India to Peking, 

 and which I have also seen from the Philippines. On the rush-grown 

 sand-Hats at the mouth of the Changchow River, near Amoy, these 



