384 Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology . 
Taiwanfoo, where it is a resident species, but rarely in the hilly 
parts of the North-west. It is identical with the race that occurs 
throughout China and Japan. 
98. Urocissa ciERULEA, Gould, P. Z. S. 1862, p. 282. 
Soon after my arrival at Tamsuy, some hunters that I had sent 
into the interior returned with the two long tail-feathers of a 
beautiful bird which they said they had shot, but were obliged 
to eat, as, owing to the heat of the weather, it was getting 
tainted. They called it the Tung-bay Swanniun, or Long-tailed 
Mountain-Nymph. I saw, from the peculiar form of the feathers, 
that the bird from which they had been extracted must have been 
a Urocissa, and, from their bright blue tint and large white tips, 
I felt sure they belonged to some fine new species. I was much 
excited, and offered large sums for specimens, and consequently 
soon received an ample supply, which fully confirmed my belief 
that the Formosan Urocissa was a peculiar and beautiful form. 
The Mountain-Nymph is by no means an uncommon bird in 
the large camphor-forests of the mountain-range. It is there 
to be met with in small parties of six or more, flying from tree 
to tree, brandishing about their handsome tail-appendages, and 
displaying their brightly contrasted black-and-azure plumage 
adorned with white, and their red bill and legs, among the deep 
foliage of the wood. They are shy birds, soon taking alarm at 
the approach of a stranger, giving warning to each other in loud 
notes, and then gliding away one after another with a straight 
flight into an adjoining tree (the flight being executed with short 
quick flaps of the wing, while the body and tail are held nearly 
horizontal). They feed on wild figs, mountain berries, and in¬ 
sects, chiefly Melolonthine Coleoptera. I had no opportunities of 
observing the nesting of this bird, nor the plumage of the young, 
which in the U. sinensis differ considerably from that of the 
adult. 
In the large size and bulkiness of its bill, this species is more 
nearly affine to the Urocissa magnirostris of Tenasserim than to 
U. sinensis of China; but its tail is shorter than that of either, 
and its plumage is entirely different to the similarly distributed 
tints of the four other described species. 
