8752 



Birds, 



preceded by a long sibilant " see," he wings into an adjoining tree, 

 opening his tail in flight sufficient to display the white spots that 

 ornament its lateral feathers. In his retreat he keeps on muttering a 

 chuckle at intervals. At last his impatience gets the better of him; 

 with a loud cry, resembling the syllables "quack, quack," he flies 

 right away. 



37. Tnrdus obscurus, Gm. 



38. T. fuscatns, Pall. 



39. T. nauraanni, Temm. 



40. Myiophonus insularis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1862, p. 180. 

 M. insularis, var. M. Horsfieldii, Vigors (Goidd's 6 Century] pi. 20). 



The Formosan cavern-bird haunts the dark wooded ravines in the interior 

 mountains, seldom descending below the level of 2000 feet. Like the 

 Chinese species, its favourite position is on a large boulder of rock on 

 the side of some torrent, whereon it stands, expanding and shutting its 

 tail like a fan, and occasionally throwing it slightly up. It is easily 

 startled? running, rather than hopping over the surface of the rock, and 

 flying off with a loud screaming note. It possesses a short, somewhat 

 pleasant song. In its manners and habits it seems to connect the 

 thrushes and Petrocinclae with the Pittae, which also love the neigh- 

 bourhood of mountain streams. The shape of its ear is most peculiar, 

 and almost exactly similar to that of the Henicuri, winch are also 

 cascade-loving birds. The birds dissected contained usually remains 

 of Coleoptera and their larvae. 



41. Garrulax taivanus. The Hwa-mei (Flowered Eyebrow) or song 

 thrush of the Chinese, is so universally met with as a cage-bird in 

 China that every European possessed of ordinary observation that has 

 visited the Celestial realm must be acquainted with it. The Formosan 

 Hw T a-mei (or Hoe-be,' as the word is there pronounced) is both a hill- 

 bird and a frequenter of the plains. In the hills, however, it is not 

 common ; and I do not think it there ranges to a greater altitude than 

 2000 feet. On the plains it is everywhere excessively common, being 

 found in the bamboo plantations, hopping, with curved back and 

 rounded tail, from bough to bough, fluttering its short distances from 

 tree to tree or bush to bush, and frequently singing out lustily its loud 

 notes. Its song is rich and powerful, abounding in a great variety of 

 notes, many of which have a strong resemblance to those of the black- 

 bird and thrush {T. merula and T. musicus); but, unless heard at a mode- 

 rate distance, the noise almost deafens you. I think the notes of the 

 Formosan bird rather finer than those of the Chinese ; but in this the 

 Chinese settlers,naturally preferring the products of the mother country, 



