314 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



feathers of the crest short and rounded; the primary coverts and 

 secondary coverts narrowly tipped with yellowish white; the yellow 

 parts of the plumage slightly paler; the black portions (of the male) 

 almost without gloss. 



The wing lengths of nine adult males from the North range from 

 107 to 114.5 mm. 



Family SITTIDAE 



SITTA MAGNA MAGNA Wardlaw Ramsay 



Southern Giant Nuthatch 



Sitta magna Wardlaw Ramsay, Proc. Zool. Soe. London, 1876, p. 677, col. pi. 

 63 (Karen-ni). 



Sitta magna, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1929, p. 530 

 (Doi Suthep) ; 1934, p. 182 (Doi Suthep, Doi Chiang Dao).— Deignan, 

 Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, p. 135 (Doi Suthep). — Chasen and 

 Boden Kloss, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat Hist. Suppl., 1932, p. 246 (Doi Suthep). — 

 Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1936, p. 104 (Doi Suthep). — 

 Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, p. 316 (Doi Ang Ka, Doi Langka). 



The giant nuthatch has been found in Thailand only on the high 

 mountains listed above, ranging from 4,000 feet (Doi Ang Ka) to 

 5,500 feet (Doi Suthep). 



I saw this fine species only in or at the edge of dense evergreen 

 forest, where, singly or in pairs, it kept to the tops of huge trees, liv- 

 ing or dead. It is apparently not uncommon but, in my experience, 

 is silent and difficult to observe. Smith, Garthwaite, and Smythies 

 state (Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc, 1940, p. 580) that, in Karen-ni, 

 it occurs in pine and "has a distinctive tri-syllabic call, like the cough 

 of an angry gibbon." 



A bird from Doi Ang Ka had the irides brown ; the bill black, with 

 the basal half of the mandible plumbeous; the feet and toes light 

 brown ; the claws dark brown. 



The adult male has a broad, blue-black band on each side of the 

 head from the base of the bill, through the eye, to the upper back ; the 

 portions of the forehead and crown between these bands soft blue- 

 gray (more or less streaked with black), changing to a paler gray on 

 the nape and uppermost back ; the remaining upperparts slaty blue ; 

 the central pair of rectrices slaty blue, the others largely black with 

 white subapical patches ; the chin and throat white, changing to soft 

 blue-gray on the breast, abdomen, and flanks (washed with buff at the 

 region of the vent) ; the thighs chestnut-rufous; the under tail coverts 

 chestnut-rufous with broad, white tips. The adult female resembles 

 the male but has the dark markings of the head dull black, with a 

 tendency to gloss only posteriorly; the pale nuchal area faintly 

 suffused with buff; the mantle paler and less suffused with blue; the 

 underparts pale gray, everywhere more or less suffused with buff. 



