THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 295 



Like other drongos, this form haunts forest clearings and trailsides, 

 where it is easily seen and heard. When it pursues insects on the wing, 

 a most elegant effect is given by the apparently disjoined racquets 

 fluttering far behind the tail. 



A bird still in postnatal molt was taken May 3, and others in post- 

 ju venal molt were obtained between August 13 and 24. Adults in 

 postnuptial molt were collected between August 30 and October 20. 



Old individuals had the irides crimson ; the bill, feet, toes, and claws 

 black. Immatures seem to have the irides brown. 



Bhringa remifer is separated from others of its family by having a 

 dense tuft of frontal feathers directed forward to cover the basal half 

 of the bill and by having the outermost pair of rectrices prolonged 

 beyond the others by a wirelike shaft terminated with a long, slender 

 racquet. It has the general coloration black, highly glossed with steel 

 blue (except on the lower flanks, where the feathers are silky and 

 silver-gray). 



DISSEMURUS PARADISEUS RANGOONENSIS (Gould) 



Burmese Greater Racquet-tailed Drongo 



Edolius Rangoonensis Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1836, p. 5 (Rangoon, 

 Burma). 



Dissemurus paradiseus, Gyldenstolpe, Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, 1915, p. 167 

 (listed). 



Dissemurus paradiseus malabaricus, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. 

 Handl., 1916, p. 21 (Khun Tan, Pha Kho). 



Dissemurus paradiseus rangoonensis, Gyldenstolpe, Ibis, 1920, p. 450 ("Through- 

 out the north of Siam").— de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 

 1928, p. 556 (Chiang Mai) ; 1929, p. 554 (Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai, Chiang 

 Saen Kao) ; 1934, p. 228 (Chiang Mai, Chiang Saen). — Deignan, Journ. Siam 

 Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, p. 148 (Chiang Mai, Doi Suthep) ; 1936, p. 101 

 (Chiang Mai, Doi Suthep).— Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, p. 291 

 (Khun Tan, Doi Hua Mot, Muang Pai, Sop Phung). 



The larger racquet-tailed drongo is very common throughout our 

 provinces in the bamboo and dry, deciduous forest of the plains and 

 the lower mountain slopes to 2,700 feet, rather less so in light evergreen 

 to 3,500 feet. 



The mixed aggregations of babblers, woodpeckers, etc., which travel 

 noisily through the pa daeng^ are almost always accompanied by a 

 pair of the noh saeo yai hang buang, which fly from tree to tree in 

 advance of their more terrestrial companions, uttering an endless series 

 of melodious whistles and liquid calls. 



A specimen still in postnatal molt was taken June 1 and another 

 in postjuvenal molt, July 25. Adults in postnuptial molt were collected 

 between May 27 and November 8. 



My examples had the irides brown or brownish red ; the bill, feet, 

 toes, and claws black. 



