THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 221 



green ; those observed by me, whether on Doi Chiang Dao or in Keng- 

 tung State (where it is a not uncommon form), were in open forest 

 of oak and pine. The call is a nasal ank-ank-ank. 



Gyldenstolpe records that his female had the irides brown; the 

 orbital skin blue; the bill dirty yellow; the feet and toes brownish 

 gray. 



In this genus the casque is small, low, and laterally compressed. 

 The adult male of the present form has the upperparts dark gray- 

 brown, the feathers of crown and hindneck with grayish-white shaft 

 streaks ; the primaries blackish, glossed with green, edged with buffy 

 on the outer web near the center and more or less broadly tipped with 

 white; the rectrices broadly tipped white (the central pair, however, 

 usually uniformly gray-brown) ; the throat and foreneck white, more 

 or less suffused with pale rufous ; the remaining underparts pale ru- 

 fous. My female specimen differs in having the underparts brownish 

 gray, a litle paler on the throat and foreneck, slightly suffused every- 

 where with pale rufous ; the central rectrices uniform gray-brown, the 

 remainder (with the exception of the third pair) indistinctly and 

 irregularly tipped with white and pale brownish {vide infra). 



The adult female described above is in beautiful, unworn dress 

 except for the third pair of rectrices ; these are frayed and discolored 

 and clearly have been retained from a precedent plumage. The in- 

 teresting thing about them is that, quite unlike the newer feathers, 

 they are broadly and distinctly tipped with pure white. This may 

 indicate that the tail patterns thought to be diagnostic of austeni and 

 tickelli are really age characters, a fact that would explain the numer- 

 ous exceptional examples found in either population. 



P. t. indochinensis (North Annam), described from a unique male, 

 is, in my opinion, only doubtfully distinct from austeni. 



Order PICIFORMES 

 Family CAPITONIDAE 



MEGALAIMA VIRENS VIRENS (Boddaert) 



Chinese Giant Barbet 



Bucco virens Boddaert, Table des planches enlumineez d'histoire naturelle, 1783, 

 p. 53 (China, ex D'Aubenton, pi. 871). 



Megalaema virens, Gyldenstolpe, Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, 1915, p. 230 

 (listed) ; Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1916, p. 97 (Khun Tan, Doi 

 Pha Sakaeng) ; Ibis, 1920, p. 596 ("Northern and northwestern Siam"). 



Megalaima virens virens, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 

 1929, p. 568 (Doi Suthep) ; 1934, p. 253 (Doi Suthep, Doi Chiang Dao, Khun 

 Tan). — Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, p. 158 (Doi 

 Suthep) ; 1936, p. 95 (Doi Suthep).— Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, 

 p. 198 (Khun Tan, Doi Langka, Doi Hua Mot) . 



