389 
Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 
Numbers of long stiff bristles spring from base of bill, forming 
three sets—one from nostrils, one from base of upper mandible, 
and one from chin or under angle of gonys. The feathers of 
the back are olive-green, broadly margined with a brighter yel¬ 
lowish green. 
102. Gecinus tancola, Gould, P. Z. S. 1862, p. 283. 
The Formosan Green Woodpecker is a local representative of 
the larger Himalayan form, G. occipitalis , which is, however, at 
once to be distinguished from it by its greater dimensions, by 
its large entirely black bill, by the sides of its neck being yel¬ 
lowish green instead of grey, by the brighter yellowish green 
of the breast, belly, and back, by its lateral rectrices being en¬ 
tirely brown instead of partially brownish white, and by its 
primary coverts being margined on the outer web with golden 
green instead of being barred with brown. The wing is shorter 
in the Formosan bird; and the primaries have fewer whitish 
spots, and only just indications of some on the outer edge of the 
1st primary, instead of distinct spots; and a grey eye-streak 
divides the black on the lores from the red frontal crest. Bill 
blackish grey on the upper and nearly whole apical half of the 
lower mandible, the basal edge of upper and rest of lower being 
greenish yellow. Legs deep leaden, with a tinge of olive-green ; 
sole-pads brownish ; claws leaden black. Irides pearly white. 
When in the mountainous country near Foochow, in May 
1857, I procured a male and two young of a very similar species 
to this, but differing in having the two lateral rectrices on each 
side banded with brownish white, and having the pale bars on 
the two central rectrices carried up to the shafts instead of sepa¬ 
rated from them by a line of brown. The series of specimens 
I have from Formosa vary but triflingly in the colouring of the 
tail; but then they are all from the same neighbourhood (Tam- 
suy mountains). I suppose, after the fashion of the late split¬ 
ting-up of the Woodpecker species, we must consider the Foo- 
chowan distinct from the Formosan bird. 
Length 10^ in .; wing 5^ ; tail 4^. Forehead, in male, car¬ 
mine ; in female, grey broadly streaked with black, like the rest 
of the crown and hindneck. 
