THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 267 



blackish brown, each feather very narrowly edged with sandy buff; 

 an indistinct buffy-white supercilium ; the ear coverts rufous-buff, 

 tipped with blackish brown; the chin and throat buffy white (some 

 of the feathers with minute blackish-brown tips), this color con- 

 tinued up behind the ear coverts to connect with the nuchal collar; 

 the remaining underparts pale buff, the feathers of the breast with 

 broad black central streaks to form a conspicuous gorget. The juve- 

 nile resembles the adult but differs chiefly in having all the feathers 

 of the upperparts with narrow rufous-buff tips and those of the 

 breast with rounded spots rather than streaks. 



Family HIRUNDINIDAE 



HIRUNDO RUSTICA GUTTURALIS Scopoli 



White-bellied House Swallow 



Hirundo (gutturalis) Scopoli, Deliciae florae et faunae insubricae, pt. 2, 178G, 

 p. 96 ("In nova Guiana," error; type specimen from Antigua, Panay, Philip- 

 pine Islands, fide Hartert, Vogel der palaarktischen Fauna, vol. 1, 1910, 

 p. 803). 



Hirundo rustica gutturalis, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 

 1929, p. 561 (Chiang Saen). — Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 

 1931, p. 153 (Chiang Mai) ; 1936, p. 99 (Chiang Mai). 



Six males from Chiang Saen (de Schauensee) and two males and a 

 female from Chiang Mai (Deignan) seem to be the only examples yet 

 taken in our area; it is, nevertheless, a very common bird of the 

 northern lowlands during two-thirds of the year. At Chiang Mai it 

 appeared in numbers between July 13 (1935) and July 21 (1929, 1930) 

 and thereafter was irregularly common on the plain until the follow- 

 ing spring (latest date: March 29, 1929). I have found it along the 

 Nan river, however, as late as April 9 and took a specimen as far 

 south as Chanthaburi, May 5, 1937. 



In season the common swallow can usually be seen tirelessly flying 

 above such open country as ricefields and marshes, frequently in 

 company with others of its family. Unlike the red-rumped swallow, 

 the present form rests and roosts among the reeds rather than on 

 telegraph wires. 



Examples of either sex had the irides dark brown ; the bill black ; 

 the feet and toes dark brown; the soles horny brown; the claws 

 brownish black. 



The adult has the forehead chestnut; the remaining upperparts 

 glossy steel blue; each of the rectrices (except the central pair) with a 

 diagonal white mark on the inner web near the center; the throat 

 chestnut; a steel blue gorget across the upper breast, more or less 

 broken at the center by encroaching chestnut ; the rest of the under- 

 parts white, more or less suffused with creamy rufous. The immature 



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