Mr. It. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology . 405 
months in confinement, are still shy birds, and skulk in holes 
the greater part of the day. They frequently utter a plaintive 
note “ co-co-co -coo/ } the last a low wail, almost impossible to 
syllable. One fine skin of a hen I have got has a snow-white 
patch on the crown and a few white feathers on the side of the 
jaws. In other respects it is normal. The second-year plumage 
of the young cock is very peculiar. The bare cheek-skin is 
well developed into comb and wattles, but the spurs are not full- 
grown. The tail, in shape and size, is a good deal similar to 
that of the hen bird. The underparts are dull black, with very 
little of the purplish gloss. The quills are deep hair-brown; and 
the tail is black, with very slight chestnut mottling. The wing- 
coverts, the lower part of the back and rump, and the ample 
margin of the secondaries are transversely barred with narrow 
alternate wavy lines of deep chestnut-brown and black. A few 
of the scapulars and lesser wing-coverts have their middle buff. 
The head and neck are purplish-black, and the crown white. 
The upper back is purplish-black, many of the feathers being 
broadly centred with white, and having broad maroon-chestnut 
margins. The back-mantle is deep chestnut. At a younger stage 
the crown also is black. The crown seems to be the first part 
to develope the white feathers of maturity. The other Euplo- 
cami may be found to have corresponding intermediate forms of 
the male. 
The single egg of Euplocamus swinhoii that I possess is well 
ovate, being somewhat pointed at one end, 2*4 inches long by 
I '7 inch at greatest breadth. It is of a buff-cream colour, 
very minutely dotted with white. 
I have lately received a second specimen of Hydrophasianus 
chirurgus from Takow. This has the axillaries a pure unmottled 
white, and seems to be every whit the same as specimens from 
the Himalaya. 
A friend who visited the interior of Formosa from Takow 
reports having flushed from thick covert on a mountain-side a 
pair of Partridge-like birds, a good deal larger than either of the 
two species already known. I could learn nothing about it from 
the natives. Another friend declares that one of his party shot 
a Partridge at Kelung (North Formosa) the size of Bambusicola f 
2 E 
N. S.-VOL. II. 
