THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 129 



Himantopus himantopus himantopus, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. 

 Suppl., 1936, p. 169 (Ban Mae Chai). 



I watched a stilt on the marsh at Ban Mae Chai, May 9 and 10, 1936, 

 but found it too wild to be collected. Since there is no other northern 

 record, it is not possible to define the status of this species in our 

 provinces. 



A female with enlarged gonads, collected by me at Chanthaburi, 

 April 22, 1937, had the irides red; the bill black; the feet and toes 

 rose. 



This is an unmistakable form. The male has the wings, scapulars, 

 and a narrow band across the upper back black, slightly glossed with 

 green; the rest of the plumage white, becoming smoky gray on the 

 tail. The female differs only in having the scapulars and the band 

 across the back brown. The pink legs are grotesquely long and, in 

 flight, extend far beyond the tail. 



Family BURHINIDAE 



ESACUS MAGNIROSTRIS RECURVIROSTRIS (Cuvier) 



Indian Great-billed Thick-knee 



OEd[icnemus] recurvirostris Cuvier, Regne animal, nouv. £d., vol. 1, 1829, p. 



500, note 2 (no locality given=Nepal, apud Stuart Baker). 

 Esacus recurvirostris, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1929, 



p. 581 (Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai). — Deignan, Journ. Siarn Soc. Nat. Hist. 



Suppl., 1931, p. 170 (Chiang Mai) ; 1936, p. 84 (Chiang Mai). 



The thick-knee is confined to the great bars of sand and shingle 

 along our major rivers. De Schauensee took a female from a flock 

 of six birds on the Mae Kok at Chiang Bai, January 6, 1929. I col- 

 lected a pair on the Mae Khong at Chiang Saen Kao, January 9, 1937. 

 In April 1937 I recorded the species at several places on the Mae Nan 

 between Ban Pak Li and Ban Pa Luat. For Chiang Mai there is but 

 one record : A solitary individual on the Mae Ping near Wat Phra- 

 non, December 15 and 22, 1928. 



Along the Nan river I found the thick-knee concealing itself during 

 the day in impenetrable thickets of a willowlike shrub which grew 

 in hollows of the dunes. While camped upon a huge bar near Ban 

 Pa Luat, April 9, 1937, I heard constantly during the night the sweet, 

 mournful piping of this species. The wild excitement of the parents, 

 invisible in the darkness, led to the discovery of a downy young one, 

 flattening itself with outstretched neck against the shingle. This bird, 

 which was collected, was probably less than one week old ; it was able 

 to run strongly and had been feeding on Orthoptera. A few feet 

 away a second chick was found, about three-fourths the size of the 

 first and still unable to stand. 



