8750 



Birds. 



development. I have a large series of skins from Amoy, many of 

 which show a strong tendency to lapse away into other closely 

 affined species. Some have the frontal band reaching almost to the 

 occiput, and lean towards L. nigriceps; others have the head nearly 

 gray, and incline towards L. caniceps ; others have the tertiaries 

 broadly margined with buff-white, thus approaching L. erythronotus. 

 Many of the smaller species seem to be descendants from, or, at least, 

 of the same origin as, the Chinese type, and, though varying among 

 themselves, always carry characters sufficient to distinguish them. 

 These Indian and Malayan forms are mostly smaller; but in Formosa 

 we have a bird of the same size and habits, and indeed singularly 

 identical in every respect with the Chinese bird, except in a few of 

 its hues. From my large series of Chinese skins I can produce one 

 example or two undistinguishable from the Formosan variety, and from 

 my Formosan skins I find an occasional specimen entirely like the 

 Chinese bird, and yet, taken as series, they might by some be 

 separated as of different species. 



31. Lanius lucionensis, Linn. This species of the red-tailed group 

 of shrikes, of which L. phoenicurus, L., is the type, is a summer 

 visitor to Northern China, I having myself met with it as far north as 

 Talien Bay. In spring and fall it abounds at Amoy for a few days, 

 and then disappears, on its vernal migration into the interior and 

 North of China; and in autumn across the sea to the Philippines, where 

 it hybernates. In its line of migration it touches S.W. Formosa, and 

 there we had its company for a few days in the early part of September. 

 Its chattering note is very different from that of the preceding large 

 species ; and it is of more skulking habits, seldom showing itself in 

 any conspicuous place. It possesses a melodious song of no mean 

 capacity, but it is generally uttered in a subdued tone. It feeds on 

 large insects, especially Libellulae, but oftener, I think, on small birds, 

 more particularly of the Phylloscopus group. The migration of 

 P. sylvicultrix, unfortunately for that bird, takes the same route as 

 that^of this butcher, and consequently the latter always has its food at 

 hand. The arrival of the one bird is slightly in advance of the other. 

 My specimens from Formosa are identical with those procured from 

 Amoy, whence I have an immense series of skins, varying in numerous 

 instances, with strong tendencies in colouring to its congeners of the 

 same group ; but my remarks on them I must reserve for another 

 paper, which I have in preparation, on the birds of China. 



32. Cinclus pallasi, Temm. This bird is usually met with on 

 the mountains some 2000 or more feet above the sea, frequenting 



