260 Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 
line of China, and the northernmost in those parts, so far as yet 
observed, by the Yangtsze River. 
20. Alcedo bengalensis, Gmel. Chinese, To-he-ang (Little 
Fisher). 
The little “ King of the Shrimps ” is as common throughout 
Formosa as in China. I have a large number of examples from 
both countries, and they do not offer the slightest variation. It 
ranges on the main from Canton to the Amoor, and is also 
abundant in Japan, being everywhere a resident species. The 
preceding and this are the only two species of Kingfisher that 
I noted in Formosa. 
?, shot Sept. 3,1861. (Esophagus ^ in. thick; proventriculus 
Gizzard somewhat heart-shaped, ^ in. long by the mus¬ 
cular tendons scarcely observable; epithelium very thin, wrinkled 
longitudinally, stained light yellowish brown, and containing 
fish-bones. 
, 21. Tchitrea principalis (Temm.). 
Muscipeta principalis, Temm. Faun. Jap. pi. 17 E. 
M. atricaudata , Eyton. 
M. atriceps, Blyth. 
The only time I noted this bird was in April 1862, in Tamsuy, 
when I procured a female. In the plains of the south-west 
during the summer it did not occur; hence I am of opinion that 
it does not nidificate on our island, but is merely a straggler 
during the migration season. Its summer habitat, so far as I 
have yet ascertained, is Japan, whither it crosses by sea, together 
with Xanthopygia narcissina , Schleg., from the coast of Fokien; 
for in April it suddenly appears, the males mostly in complete 
plumage, with the central feathers fully acquired, at Canton, at 
Amoy, and at Foochow. It is at that season abundant for a few 
days, then suddenly disappears, not a single one remaining to 
breed; and we do not meet with it till we reach Japan. In 
making the sea-passage to Japan, some would naturally touch at 
the coast of N.W. Formosa. North of Foochow, as far as Peking, 
another species with a red tail, the T. incii, Gould, is supplied as 
a summer visitor. I would hence infer, by continuing the line of 
migration in a south-westerly direction, that the interior of Cochin 
