42 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



1936. Although the bird is evidently common in all our provinces 

 at some time during the year, there is still no record for its presence 

 in November and December anywhere in the North. 



The cinnamon bittern is found not only on the larger marshes, but 

 everywhere in the paddy-fields and even at the tiniest pools after the 

 countryside begins to dry up. At Chiang Mai I have frequently 

 seen it flying low over the city streets. 



While it has not yet been found breeding in our area, I have no 

 doubt that it nests with us during the summer months. I took a male 

 with the testes enlarged May 5, and specimens with the gonads greatly 

 enlarged were collected on May 21 and 31, June 28, and July 2 and 3. 



I witnessed a courtship performance May 30, 1930 : the male flew 

 slowly before the female with slow, stiff wing beats, calling ek — ek — 

 ek, then perched at the top of a low tree and sang gook-gook-gook- 

 gook-gook-gook-gook-gook, with each of the first five notes louder 

 than the one before it, and the last three pitched three or four tones 

 lower. 



My birds had the irides golden-yellow; the eyelids, orbital region, 

 and lores light green or greenish yellow; the culmen black (some- 

 times horny brown at the base) , the rest of the maxilla horny brown, 

 the commissure edged bright yellow ; the mandible yellow, the com- 

 missure edged horny brown; the tibiae and tarsi light green, bright 

 yellow behind; the toes light green; the soles bright yellow; the 

 claws horny brown or greenish horn. 



The adult male is entirely cinnamon-colored, paler below and 

 usually with a blackish mesial stripe from the base of the bill to the 

 upper abdomen; there is a streak of pure white at each side of the 

 throat. Adult females and immature birds have the upperparts dark 

 brown, with many obsolescent buffy bars and spots and the under- 

 pays buffy, everywhere heavily streaked with blackish. Any exam- 

 ple of this species may readily be known by its having the apical 

 half of the wing cinnamon, not black or dark gray. 



DUPETOR FLAVICOLLIS FLAVICOLLIS (Latham) 



Indian Black Bittern 



[Ardea] flavicolUs Latham, Index ornithologicus, vol. 2, 1790, p. 701 (India). 

 Dupetor flavicolUs, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1913, p. 



73 (Ban Huai Horn). 

 Dupetor flavicolUs flavicolUs, Gyxdenstolpe, Ibis, 1920, p. 769 ("Several parts of 



the country"). — Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, p. 173 



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



During my first stay in Thailand, 1929-1932, 1 considered the black 

 bittern not uncommon on the marshes between Chiang Mai and 

 Lamphun, from July 26 (1930) to September 19 (1931) ; during my 



