8806 



Birds. 



Native name, Teek-koe (Bamboo-fowl.) This and the Foochow bam- 

 boo-fowl are of very similar habits and notes. This species is found 

 throughout all the hills of Formosa, generally scattered about the bush, 

 never in coveys. It is very puligistic, the males and females both 

 singing the same loud cry, beginning with " killy-killy," and ending 

 rapidly with " ke-put-kwai," which is so powerfully uttered that it may 

 be heard at a great distance. They are not easily flushed, lying so 

 close to the ground that you may walk over the spot whence the noise 

 appears to come, and rarely put up the bird. Each pair selects its 

 own beat, setting up, frequently during the day, the challenge-note ; 

 and woe betide any other partridge that encroaches on the forbidden 

 ground ! They both set on him at once, and buffet him without 

 mercy till he takes to his heels. This pugnacious propensity often meets, 

 as it perhaps deserves to do, with an evil fate. The Chinese fowler 

 listens for the challenge, and sets on the disputed hill a trap with a 

 caged decoy within. The decoy is trained, and sets up a reply. The 

 lord and lady of the manor rush to the spot, and run recklessly into 

 the trap and are caught. The captures are taken to the market and 

 sold as cage-birds, the Chinese having a great love for the horrible 

 screeching cry that this bird is incessantly sending forth. In the 

 night this bird leaves the shelter of the grass and bush, and repairs to 

 the branches of bamboos and other trees to roost. It is an excellent 

 percher, being quite at home on a branch, in which respect it differs 

 from the Chinese Fran col in (Francolinus perlatus), which never 

 perches. It nests in a depression in the ground, usually under shelter 

 of a bush or tuft, and lays a large number of eggs, from seven to 

 a dozen or more. The eggs a good deal resemble those of the com- 

 mon partridge, being of a dark brownish cream -colour. 



116. Phasianus torquatus, Gmel. 



117. Euplocamus Swinhoii, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1862, p. 284. 

 I was informed by my hunters that a second species of pheasant, 

 which was denominated by the Chinese colonists Wa-koe, was found 

 in the interior mountains ; that it was a true jungle-bird, frequenting 

 the wild hill-ranges of the aborigines, and rarely descending to the 

 lower hills that border on the Chinese territory ; and that in the 

 evening and early morning the male was in the habit of showing him- 

 self on an exposed branch or roof of a savage's hut, uttering his 

 crowing defiant note, while he strutted and threw up his tail like a 

 rooster. I offered rewards and encouraged my men to do their 

 utmost to procure me specimens of this bird, and I was so far suc- 

 cessful that I managed to obtain a pair ; but in my trip to the interior 



