44 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ing blackish at the tip; the bill otherwise dull olive-green; the feet 

 and toes green ; the soles yellowish ; the claws horn brown. 



This heron has the whole crown and nape, and a line from the 

 gape below each cheek, black; the upperparts bright buff, heavily 

 streaked and barred with rufous and black; the underparts bright 

 buff, streaked with dark rufous ; the apical half of the outspread wing 

 pinkish rufous, barred with black. 



Botaurus stellaris orientalis Buturlin is considered unrecognizable 

 by Hartert and Peters. A pair of topotypes of this race in Washing- 

 ton are strikingly larger and darker than all specimens from other 

 localities I have examined; it would seem either that the bird of 

 northeastern Asia is indeed separable, or, if it be identical with 

 Swedish specimens (which I have not seen), that a smaller, more 

 southern race must be recognized. 



Family CICONIIDAE 



ANASTOMUS OSCITANS (Boddaert) 



Asiatic Openbill 



Ardea oscitans Boddaebt, Table des planches enlumineez d'histoire naturelle, 



1783, p. 55 (Pondicherry, ex D'Aubenton, pi. 932). 

 Anastomus oscitans, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, p. 172 



(Chiang Mai) ; 1936, p. 74 (Chiang Mai). 



On the marshes south of Chiang Mai the openbill occurs in flocks 

 from early in September to the beginning of November, and at Chiang 

 Mai I saw a solitary bird above the town, June 10, 1930. On Decem- 

 ber 19, 1935, a small flock was found roosting in the dead top of an 

 enormous tree along the river just south of Chom Thong, and from 

 this group a male in nonbreeding plumage was collected. Otherwise 

 the species is not recorded from North Thailand, although I have no 

 doubt that it is widely distributed during the rains, especially in 

 Chiang Rai Province. 



I found it a very shy bird and was never able to approach within 

 gunshot of the feeding flocks. Much of its time seems to be spent 

 soaring in circles high in the air. The example from Chom Thong 

 had been feeding on a species of snail. 



This is the only stork likely to be seen in the North outside of 

 Chiang Rai Province. It differs from all other Thai birds in having 

 an open space in the middle between the two parts of the bill. In 

 nuptial dress it has the scapulars, tail, and apical half of the wing 

 black, glossed with green and purple; the rest of the plumage pure 

 white. Nonbreeding dress differs in having the white replaced by 

 soft gray. 



