THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 29 



tip pale gray ; the mandible black, mottled toward the base with light 

 brown, beneath light green, the extreme tip pale gray; the rictus 

 light yellow; the outer side of the tarsi black, the inner side olive 

 mottled with black ; the toes black, with olive lobes ; the soles black ; 

 the claws horny black, tipped horny white. 



The grebe is a swimming bird (smaller than any Thai duck) which 

 is apparently tailless and has a pointed bill. In nuptial dress it 

 has the entire upperparts dark brown ; a conspicuous white area in the 

 outspread wing; the chin blackish; the throat and foreneck rufous; 

 the remaining underparts silvery white, more or less mixed, espe- 

 cially on the sides of the body, with dark brown. In the nonbreeding 

 season the rufous disappears from the neck. 



Birds from our provinces agree perfectly with a topotype of 

 poggei. 



Order PELECANIFORMES 



Family PELECANIDAE 



PELECANUS ROSEUS Gmelin 



Spotted-billed Pelican 



[Pelecanus] roseus Gmelin, Systerna naturae, vol. 1, pt. 2, 1789, p. 570 (Manila, 



Luzon, P. I.). 

 Pelecanus phillppensis, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1916, 



p. 132 (Chiang Rai, Chiang Saen) ; Ibis, 1920, p. 776 ("Northern Siarn"). 



This species has been reported from our area only by Gyldenstolpe, 

 who says he found it several times during the summer of 1914 on the 

 lakelike swamps near Chiang Rai and Chiang Saen. Besides the two 

 specimens he lists from Chiang Rai, there is a third in the museum 

 at Stockholm, taken at Chiang Saen, August 10, 1914. 



I have visited the same localities in May, shortly before the begin- 

 ning of the rains, when the lakes were greatly reduced in area, and 

 failed to see anything of these birds, which makes it seem probable 

 that the pelican is merely a seasonal visitor, arriving from farther 

 fiouth by way of the Mae Khong valley. It is not likely to occur at 

 all in the other northern provinces. 



The pelican is a huge, short-legged, large-billed swimming bird, 

 which can be confused with no other in northern Thailand. It has 

 the body plumage largely white; the primaries and primary coverts 

 blackish ; the secondaries, scapulars, and tail silvery brown ; the bill 

 fllesh-colored on the basal half, otherwise orange, with a row of black- 

 ish spots on each side near the commissure. 



