Mr. P. L. Sclater on u Kittacincla auricularis.” 
109 
have been the means of peopling these islands with bird-life. 
That the nearest group has caught the most stragglers must be 
admitted; and that storms do bring stragglers, the occurrence, 
as I have mentioned, of such birds as the Snow-Bunting and 
Golden Oriole shows. It also seems tolerably certain that, were 
it not for the constant persecution carried on by the inhabitants, 
many species, arriving in sufficient numbers, would be able to 
establish themselves as permanent residents; and a few years 
would add, from this source alone, some accession to the legiti¬ 
mate avifauna of these islands. But hundreds of Serins are 
caught for cages, and the Bed-legged Partridge has been 
exterminated for the table in St. MichaePs; it may therefore 
be not unjustly inferred that other species have been affected in 
like manner. 
Three months is not sufficient time to investigate thoroughly 
an archipelago consisting of nine islands, situated so widely 
apart as the Azores are from each other; and that a great deal 
still remains to be done I am well aware. I would gladly direct 
the attention of other naturalists to this field, and I am sure 
they would not regret a visit to a spot to which I myself look 
back with so much pleasure. 
VIII.— Note on “ Kittacincla auricularis,” Swinhoe. 
By P. L. Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., &c. 
(Plate IV.) 
One of the most beautiful and not the least interesting of 
Mr. Swinhoe*s more recent discoveries in Formosa is the bird of 
which a figure is herewith given from Mr. Wolffs pencil*. It 
has been described by its energetic discoverer in a former volume 
of this journal f under the name “ Kittacincla auricularis,” but 
can, I think, hardly be allowed to be called permanently by this 
designation, even if Mr. Swinhoe’s views as to the validity of 
the genus “ Kittacincla” (lege Cittocincla) , as distinct from 
Copsychus, be correct. In fact I do not consider that the pre¬ 
sent bird is very closely connected with the group in which Mr. 
Swinhoe has placed it. According to my ideas it belongs strictly 
* [We are indebted to the kindness of our good friend M. Jules Ver- 
reaux for the opportunity of figuring the type specimen of this species.— 
Ed.] t Ibis, 1864, p. 361. 
