308 BULLETIN 18 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



While very common throughout our provinces, the spatulate-tailed 

 pie is strictly confined to the plains, where it inhabits brushy waste- 

 lands and the groves of giant bamboo along the streams and in the 

 neighborhood of villages. 



This bird travels in small, loose bands among the bamboos, con- 

 stantly uttering a characteristic whining call. Perhaps the most 

 extraordinary thing in connection with the species is the extreme 

 mobility of the long tail, which is employed as a balancing device 

 while its owner clambers about the branches. The only individual I 

 ever saw on the ground was bathing at a small rain pool and carried 

 the tail directed forward at an angle of 45° to the line of the back. 



Gyldenstolpe mentions (1913) taking a male with greatly enlarged 

 gonads ; the specimen could not be found in the collection at Stockholm 

 but was probably the mate of a female shot at Phrae, March 1, 1912. 

 I took two examples in postnatal molt at Chiang Mai, July 9, 1935. 



Adults have the irides light blue ; the bill, feet, toes, and claws black. 

 Immatures differ in having the irides brown. 



The adult of either sex has the area immediately around the eye and 

 a frontal band of dense, short, plushy feathers black; the rest of the 

 plumage black, everywhere glossed with deep bronze-green. With 

 wear, the gloss on head and mantle becomes more or less steel blue. 

 Immature birds have the gloss restricted to the remiges and rectrices. 



Family PARADOXORNITHIDAE 



PARADOXORNIS FLAVIROSTRIS GUTTATICOLLIS David 



Eastern Yellow-billed Crow-tit 



Paradoxornis guttaticollis David, Nouv. Arch. Mus. [Paris], vol. 7, 1871, Bull., pp. 8, 

 14 (Szechwan; type specimen from "le Setchuan occidentale," fide David, 

 Les oiseaux de la Chine, 1877, p. 204) . 



Paradoxornis guttaticollis, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 

 1938, p. 30 (Doi Pha Horn Pok). 



This large parrotbill has been found in Thailand only by de Schauen- 

 see's collectors, who took three males and two females on Doi Pha Horn 

 Pok, between 6,000 and 6,400 feet, in February, 1938. It is not at all 

 likely to occur at any other locality within our provinces. 



The adult has the crown and nape light chestnut-rufous ; the remain- 

 ing upperparts fulvous-brown, with the remiges and rectrices edged 

 rufescent ; the ear coverts and the area immediately below them black, 

 forming a large and conspicuous patch ; the chin blackish ; the remain- 

 ing underparts fulvous-white, more or less heavily marked on the 

 cheeks, throat, and upper breast with small, anteriorly directed, sagit- 

 tate, black spots. 



