THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 101 



Turnix susoitator interrumpens, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila- 

 delphia, 1934, p. 276 (Chiang Mai). — Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. 

 Suppl., 1936, p. 80 (Chiang Mai).— Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, 

 p. 75 (Mae Sariang). 



The gray-legged hemipode is a common permanent resident, at least 

 in the provinces of Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son, whence all speci- 

 mens have come. A pair in Stockholm were taken in 1914 by Eisen- 

 hofer at Khun Tan. I have collected it at Chiang Mai, Mae Sariang, 

 and on Doi Ang Ka at 4,500 feet. 



The hemipodes live singly or in pairs at grassy places, especially 

 where the grass is rather short and is dotted with bushes and thickets. 

 At Chiang Mai I found them most common on the wastelands set 

 aside for cremations and in the uncultivated areas around ruined 

 pagodas in the fields. 



Many of these little birds are snared for the market by the use of 

 female decoys ; when not employed, the decoys are kept in cages sus- 

 pended in houses, since the presence of a hemipode is believed to be 

 a safeguard against fire. 



A male from Doi Ang Ka, April 6, had the gonads enlarged ; females 

 taken at Chiang Mai, July 12 and 21, had them slightly enlarged. 

 Between these months the loud khoom-khoom-khoom of the female, 

 from which the vernacular name is derived, may be heard constantly 

 in the grasslands. 



My birds had the irides white or creamy white ; the bill plumbeous, 

 with the culmen slaty gray; the feet and toes plumbeous; the claws 

 fleshy. 



There are two distinct phases of this bird : one in which the prevail- 

 ing color of the upperparts is dark rufous, another in which it is 

 gray-brown. The female differs from that of the preceding form in 

 having no collar on the upper back ; in having the throat and center 

 of the upper breast black ; the sides of the breast and the upper flanks 

 with broken black bars; the remaining underparts deep buff. The 

 male has the throat white; the breast buff with broken black bars; the 

 remainder of the plumage like that of the preceding species. 



I provisionally call northern examples inierruinpens but am not sure 

 that this alleged subspecies differs from blakisfoni, which I have not 

 seen. Robinson and Baker, in fact, call our birds blakistoni (Bull. 

 Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 48, 1927, p. 61), but I find that, granting individ- 

 ual variation, northern skins agree well with a good series of hitei^rum- 

 pens from the Peninsula. It seems that revisers have not made suf- 

 ficient allowance for the existence of red, gray, and intermediate 

 phases in a given locality. 



