108 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



f ormance that accompanies its delivery. The bird, with swollen neck 

 and bill pointed at the ground, uttered a series of short notes, owgh- 

 owgh-owgh, then, dipping the head, continued with a hollow-sounding 

 gook-gook-gook-gook, the tone exactly like that of Botau7 v us. At 

 times the two kinds of notes were interspersed, and without exception 

 the head was lowered to produce the second sound. A similar per- 

 formance has been observed in Upper Burma by Stanford (Ibis, 1939, 

 p. 231). Anatomical investigation may show that we have here yet 

 another species that has the habit of inflating the gullet to serve as 

 a vocal resonator. 



Males in breeding condition had the irides brown ; the frontal plate 

 and the base of the bill blood red ; the rest of the bill bright yellow 

 or bright yellow-green; the fleshy prolongation of the frontal plate 

 scarlet above, otherwise fleshy pink; the feet and toes bright olive- 

 green ; the claws horn-brown. A March male in brown plumage had 

 the irides brown; the frontal plate and basal three-quarters of the 

 culmen dark brown, the rest of the maxilla olive-green ; the mandible 

 horny yellow, tipped olive-green; the feet and toes brownish olive; 

 the claws horn-brown. A male juvenile had the irides olive-brown; 

 the maxilla dark horny brown ; the edges of the commissure and the 

 mandible horny flesh ; the feet and toes gray-green ; the claws horny 

 brown. 



The breeding male has the head and neck dark slaty; the upper- 

 parts blackish brown, each feather broadly edged slaty gray; the 

 underparts slaty black, each feather narrowly tipped pale gray; a 

 fleshy protuberance rising from the hind end of the frontal plate and 

 resembling a horn. The female (and the nonbreeding male) is a 

 light brown bird, with blackish brown centers to the feathers above, 

 and faint, wavy dark brown bars everywhere below. The immature 

 resembles the female but is rather burner generally and less barred 

 below. 



I agree with Chasen (Handlist of Malaysian Birds, 1935, p. 28) 

 that Malaysian examples of this species are sufficiently smaller than 

 more northern birds to be properly separable under the name plumbea. 



GALLINULA CHLOROPUS INDICA Blyth 



Indian Gallinule 



Gallinula chloropus (?) var. Indicus [sic] Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 



vol. 11, 1842, p. 887 (Calcutta, Bengal). 

 Gallinula chloropus parvifrons, Gyldenstolpe, Ibis, 1920, p. 763 ("Northern 



Siam"). 

 Gallinula chloropus indicus, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, 



p. 169 (Chiang Mai) ; 1936, p. 81 (Chiang Mai). — de Schatjensee, Proc. 



Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1934, p. 277 (Chiang Mai). 



The gallinule is known in northern Thailand only as a winter visitor ; 

 at Chiang Mai my extreme dates were September 19 (1931) and March 



