THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 183 



ASIO FLAMMEUS FLAMMEUS (Pontoppidan) 



Holarctic Short-eared Owl 



[Sirix] Flammea Pontoppidan, Den danske Atlas eller Konge-Riget Dannemark, 

 vol. 1, 1763, p. 617, pi. 25 (Denmark). 



Dr. Count Nils Gyldenstolpe has shown me in the museum at Stock- 

 holm two female specimens of this owl, taken at Chiang Mai, April 3, 

 1938, by Dr. P. Fejos, leader of the Swedish Film Industry Expedi- 

 tion. The species is otherwise unknown from our provinces. 



This owl, which occurs on open plains and grassy areas, should be 

 watched for on fallow ricefields during the cold weather and on the 

 drying marshes, which spring up to grass and sedge after the rains. 



The short-eared owl is a medium-sized, broad-winged species of 

 peculiarly buoyant flight. It has the feathers of the upperparts buff 

 with dark brown markings (or these colors reversed) ; the quills of 

 wings and tail dark brown, barred with buff; an area around each 

 eye blackish; the underparts buff, streaked with dark brown (more 

 heavily on the breast). The horns are too small to be visible in the 

 field. 



Order CAPRIMULGIFORMES 

 Family PODARGIDAE 



BATRACHOSTOMUS HODGSONI INDOCHINAE Stresemann 



Indo-Chinese Frogmouth 



Batraclwstomus hodffsoni indochinae Stbesemann, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, vol. 



22, 1937, pp. 320-321 (Dakto, Annam). 

 Batrachostomus hodgsoni indochinae, Greenway, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 1940, 



p. 193 (Doi AngKa). 



My collectors took an adult female at Doi Nang Kaeo, February 

 28, 1937, and the members of the Asiatic Primate Expedition an un- 

 sexed juvenile at 4,300 feet on Doi Ang Ka, April 17, 1937. 



Frogmouths are confined to heavy evergreen forest. They some- 

 what resemble nightjars but have an enormously broad and swollen 

 bill and a short, rounded wing. In the present form the male is 

 mottled everywhere with blackish, brown, and white; the female has 

 the plumage generally chestnut, with black-rimmed silvery-white 

 drops on the scapulars and breast. 



My specimen, of which both wing and tail measure 130 mm., is, 

 strictly speaking, indochinae^hodgsoni. 



