THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 311 



Family PARIDAE 



PARUS MAJOR ALTARUM La Touche 



Lao Green-backed Great Tit 



Parus major altarum La Touche, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 43, 1922, p. 43 



(Mengtze, southeastern Yunnan). 

 Parus major conimixtus, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1934, 



pp. 3, 180 (Doi Chiang Dao). — Deignan, Journ. Siain Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 



1935, p. 65 (Doi Ang Ka) ; 1936, p. 103 (Doi Suthep). 

 Parus major altarum, Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, p. 311 (Doi Langka, 



Doi Hua Mot). 



The range of the great tit in our provinces is strictly limited to 

 those districts in which grow fairly extensive pine-forests, with the 

 result that it is a very local form and nowhere really common. I have 

 taken it on the Bo Luang plateau at 3,500 feet and observed it on Doi 

 Ang Ka between 3,500 and 4,500 feet; on Doi Suthep it is known only 

 from a solitary bird at 5,200 feet, January 25, 1936, and a party of four 

 at 3,800 feet, August 8, 1936 ; on Doi Chiang Dao de Schauensee col- 

 lected it between 4,500 and 5,500 feet ; at the foot of Doi Pha Horn Pok, 

 where the pine descends to the plains, I found it more numerous than 

 at any other locality. 



Only rarely is this species seen in some isolated deciduous tree or 

 in open oak-forest and then always in the immediate vicinity of pine. 

 Its acrobatic feeding postures and its cheery notes are quite like those 

 of its congeners throughout the world. 



The gonads were enlarged in a specimen from Ban Muang Sum, 

 December 26, and greatly enlarged in one from Doi Suthep, January 

 25. An example from Doi Suthep, August 8, and another from Doi 

 Hua Mot, August 12, are in postnuptial molt. 



Adults have the irides dark brown ; the bill black ; the feet and toes 

 plumbeous ; the claws dark horn. 



This titmouse has the crown and nape blue-black; the center of the 

 uppermost back, adjacent to the nape, white; the scapulars and upper 

 back dull olive-green (more yellow anteriorly), changing on the rump 

 and upper tail coverts to blue-gray ; the rectrices blackish, with a blue- 

 gray margin along the outer web and a white tip which increases in 

 extent outwardly until the outermost pair are almost wholly white; 

 the folded wing blue-gray with a conspicuous white cross bar and bold 

 white edgings along the outer web of the inner secondaries ; the cheeks 

 and ear coverts white, enclosed behind by a narrow blue-black line 

 which connects the black of the nape with that of the breast; the 

 chin, throat, and entire breast blue-black; the remaining underparts 

 vinaceous-white, with a broad black, mesial line extending from the 

 lower breast to the central under tail coverts. 



