THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 95 



ing gradually from rich brown to blackish brown, with white or buff 

 bars, which follow the outline of the feather, giving a squamatecl 

 appearance. 



It is worthy of note that ripponi in Thailand is a quite stable form, 

 exhibiting only the slightest individual variation. This is doubtless 

 connected with the fact that its distribution overlaps that of no 

 other member of the genus. 



DIARDIGALLUS DIARDI (Bonaparte) 



Diard's Fire-backed Pheasant 



Euplocomus diardi "Temm." Bonaparte, Coinpt. Rend. Acad. Sci. Paris, vol. 43, 



1856, p. 415 (no locality given=Cochinchine). 

 Lophura diardi, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1913, p. 67 



(Mae Raern river) ; Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, 1915, p. 235 (listed) ; Ibis, 



1920, p. 737 (Mae Raem). 



The fireback has not yet been reported anywhere west of the Khun 

 Tan mountains but is widely distributed in the low hilly country east 

 of them as far as the borders of Laos. Gyldenstolpe reported (1913) 

 seeing skins of birds shot "in the forests at the Meh Lem river" ( Phrae 

 Province). I have examined in Hannover a mounted cock, for which 

 the exact data have been lost but which was taken by Eisenhofer in 

 "Siam" in 1912 ; this specimen almost certainly came from Phrae Prov- 

 ince, where Eisenhofer collected from February 7 to June 27, 1912. 

 The species is well known to the people of Nan Province, where I saw, 

 but could not collect, a male at Huai Oi (about 14 km. north of Ban 

 Pak Li), April 5, 1937. 



This bird dwells in the densest cover — lowland evergreen, bamboo 

 brakes, and the areas of deserted cultivation usurped by Eupatorium 

 and thorns. As a result it is rarely seen, and nothing has been recorded 

 of its habits in our provinces. The cock observed by me in Nan Prov- 

 ince was feeding on a road with a small flock of junglefowl in a hot 

 and waterless district covered with leafless trees and bamboos. 



The male has the crown black; the crest feathers steel blue; the 

 upper back and wings finely vermiculated black and white, giving a 

 steel-gray appearance ; the upper portion of the scapulars with irregu- 

 lar black bars edged with white; the feathers of the lower back with 

 vermiculated bases, which are concealed by broad golden-buff tips; 

 the rump and upper tail coverts steel blue, tipped maroon; the tail 

 feathers black, glossed with green; the throat with scattered black 

 feathers ; the breast vermiculated like the back, the remaining under- 

 parts black, glossed with steel blue. The female has the crown dull 

 brown; the upper back ferruginous; the lower back and the wings 

 broadly and irregularly barred black and buffy white ; the rump and 

 upper tail coverts coarsely vermiculated black and buffy white; the 

 central rectrices black with broad, broken buffy-white bars ; the outer 



