THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 261 



throat and upper breast. The long series of northern skins before 

 me (taken throughout the year) show that the pale color is seasonal 

 (January 23 to July 20) and wholly due to wear. 



Peninsular Thai specimens are variably intermediate between 

 sumatranus and laoensis, which makes it difficult to decide where a 

 line should be drawn between the two forms. The Indo-Chinese coun- 

 tries farther north, however, are inhabited by a comparatively uniform 

 population, for which de Schauensee's name must be used. 



Family PITTIDAE 



PITTA CYANEA CYANEA Blyth 



Burmese Blue Pitta 



P[itta\ cyanea Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. 12, 1843, p. 1008 (Arakan). 

 Pitta cyanea, Gyldenstolpe, Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, 1915, p. 172 (listed) ; 



Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1916, p. 84 (Khun Tan) ; Ibis, 1920, p. 580 



(Khun Tan). 

 Pitta cyanea cyanea, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, p. 175 



(Doi Suthep) ; 1936, p. 98 (Doi Suthep). — de Schatjensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. 



Sci. Philadelphia, 1934, p. 245 (Doi Suthep).— Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 



172, 1938, p. 257 (Khun Tan). 



The blue pitta seems to be a rather rare and local permanent resident 

 of the mountain evergreen in the Thanon Thong Chai and Khun Tan 

 ranges, comparatively common only at Doi Khun Tan. On Doi 

 Suthep I found it from 3,500 to 5,000 feet and on Doi Chiang Dao at 

 similar elevations. From the eastern portion of our area the species 

 is known only by an example taken by me in lowland evergreen at 

 Ban Huai Ki (in the border hills between Phrae and Nan Provinces) ; 

 the specimen is tentatively placed with the Burmese form, although 

 it may just possibly represent an undescribed race. 



I found this species, usually by accident, on the ground in the densest 

 cover imaginable : Swampy glades thickly covered with ginger-lilies, 

 or moist groves of thorny palm-scrub. It usually sought escape by 

 running and jumping through the vegetation like a small mammal, 

 less often by flying to some low branch where it stopped to survey the 

 intruder. 



I have no reason to believe that this bird is at all migratory in our 

 provinces, where it has been recorded at all seasons. Smith took a 

 juvenile on Doi Khun Tan, August 24. 



Adult specimens had the irides dark brown ; the eye ring slate ; the 

 bill black ; the rictus and interior of the mouth dusky flesh ; the feet, 

 toes, and claws fleshy plumbeous; the soles yellowish white. 



The adult male has a broad black median streak from the forehead 

 to the nape ; the remainder of the forehead and f orecrown ochraceous 

 changing gradually to scarlet on the posterior crown and the nape; 

 the remaining upperparts blue ; the primaries black, each with a large 



