THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 331 



feet) , at a site abandoned a few years earlier by the Yao in consequence 

 of pestilence, only two pairs of this bulbul remained within a limited 

 area whose suitability was fast disappearing (1936) before the en- 

 croaching lalang. It is not apparently a migratory form, but it should 

 be noted that de Schauensee reported (1934) seeing "loose flocks com- 

 posed of hundreds" on the lower slopes of Doi Suthep (1,500 feet) in 

 December ; such local wanderings may well explain the advent of the 

 species at isolated settlements in the hills. 



At Chiang Mai this sprightly bird was always in evidence, its cheer- 

 ful notes sounding from the trees at the first light of dawn and con- 

 tinuing throughout the day, whether their author was engaged in 

 examining the ripening fruit, hopping about on walks and lawns 

 with tail raised above the line of back in pursuit of beetles and grass- 

 hoppers, bathing in some shallow puddle, or hawking at evening for 

 winged termites from the ridgepole of a roof. Owing to its numbers, 

 it must do a certain amount of damage to fruits and vegetables and, 

 since it seems to be the only bird that shows real interest in the fruit 

 of the lantana, it is probably largely responsible for the rapid spread 

 of that beautiful but noxious weed. 



I took a male with the gonads greatly enlarged, April 16, and others 

 with them merely enlarged, May 16 and 18. A round, cupshaped nest, 

 made of twigs, pieces of cloth and paper, dry leaves of bamboo, and 

 lined with thin, wiry grass, was found May 13 in the crotch of an 

 Ixora, about 3 feet above the ground; it contained two unfledged 

 young, both of which were drowned the same day by a heavy rain. 

 Another nest, discovered July 1, was in a hedge of Inga dulcts, about 7 

 feet from the ground, and held two newly hatched young. Smith took 

 a juvenile at Doi Hua Mot, August 29, and an adult in postnuptial 

 molt at Lampang, November 17. 



It has the iricles brown ; the bill, feet, toes, and claws black. 



The adult has the forehead and crested crown black ; the upperparts 

 brown, the remiges and the graduated rectrices darker, all except the 

 two central pairs of the latter with an outwardly increasingly broad 

 white tip ; a small patch of shining, deep crimson feathers below and 

 behind the eye ; the ear coverts pure white, bordered below by a narrow 

 black line ; the chin, throat, and center of the upper breast pure white ; 

 a broad blackish-brown breast band from the sides of the neck, broken 

 at the center of the breast ; the remaining underparts white, more or 

 less sullied with sooty brown, especially along the flanks and on the 

 thighs ; the under tail coverts crimson. The juvenile differs in having 

 the forehead and crest blackish brown; the red postocular patch re- 

 placed by white ; the upper tail coverts suffused with pink ; the under 

 tail coverts pale buffy pink. 



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