400 Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 
greyish olive-brown, finely mottled with black. Tail reddish 
brown, barred with black-edged bars of rufous ochre, and mottled 
all over with fine black strise. The maroon spots on the under 
parts are more or less shaded with black. 
The female is rather less strong in form than the male, has a 
wart instead of a spur, but, with the exception of the feathers 
about the abdomen, is otherwise similar. 
The B. thoracica is at once distinguished from this species 
by the rufous of the throat being extended to the cheeks and 
sides of neck, by the rufous-ochre spots on its crown, and by the 
large spots on the under parts being black, as well as by other 
minor particulars in colouring. It is also of larger size and 
proportions. 
A pair of immature birds were brought to me on the 16th 
August 1861. They uttered a continuous loud fowl-like scream. 
Their bills were blackish grey, with paler edges and tip; inside 
of mouth ochreous flesh-colour. Iris hazel. Rim round eye 
deep brown; bare skin about the eye greenish yellow. Legs 
dark greenish grey, with greenish incipient spur in the male 
bird, and brownish grey claws. Their stomachs contained grass- 
seeds. Their flesh was sweet and tender. The immature bird 
has no rufous on the crown; the grey of the neck is pale and 
brownish; the throat pale ochreous white; the under parts much 
lighter, with only a few spots; the tail redder, and the wing- 
coverts more distinctly spotted and marked. 
This and the Foochow Bamboo-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 pugilistic, 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 en¬ 
croaches on the forbidden ground ! They both set on him at 
once, and buffet him without mercy till he takes to his heels. 
