THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 409 



This is not quite so active a bird as the preceding species but shares 

 with it the habit of incessant tail movement. Those seen by me fed 

 not only on rocks jutting out of the churning water but waded about 

 in the shallow pools at the margin of the stream. The call note is a 

 sharp ping. 



The adult of either sex has the crown and nape white; the rest of 

 the head, the neck, breast, back, and wings glossy black; the rump, 

 upper tail coverts, belly, flanks, and under tail coverts rich maroon; 

 the tail rufous-maroon, with the apical third black ; the thighs black- 

 ish brown. 



PHOENICURUS AUROREUS LEUCOPTERUS Blyth 

 SZECHWANESE SLATY-CROWNED REDSTART 



Phoenicura leucoptcra Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. 12, 1843, p. 962 



("The Malay Peninsula"). 

 Phoenicurus auroreus, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1929, 



p. 532 (Chiang Saen Kao) ; 1934, p. 209 (Doi Suthep).— Deignan, Journ. 



Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1936, p. Ill (Doi Suthep). 



This land redstart seems to be a rather rare winter visitor to our 

 provinces, known by only three specimens : De Schauensee collected a 

 male at Chiang Saen Kao, January 13, 1929, and a female on 

 Doi Suthep, 1,500 feet, February 1, 1933, while I took a male on Doi 

 Suthep, 5,500 feet, November 7, 1936. 



My example was found perched at the top of a tangle of shrubs, 

 thorny vines, and tall grass, shivering the tail just as does the com- 

 mon redstart of western Europe. 



The adult male has the crown, nape, and upper back slaty gray; 

 the center of the back black (the feathers edged with dull rufous in 

 winter) ; the rump and upper tail coverts orange-rufous; the wings 

 black, the secondaries with a large white area at the base to form a 

 conspicuous patch; the central pair of tail feathers black, the others 

 orange-rufous ; the forehead, lores, ear coverts, sides of the neck, the 

 chin, throat, and upper breast black; the remaining underparts 

 orange-rufous (the feathers of the breast and belly edged with rufous- 

 white in winter). The adult female has the upperparts dull oliva- 

 ceous-brown, except for the orange-rufous rump and upper tail cov- 

 erts; the wings and tail as in the adult male but with the black 

 replaced by dark brown; the underparts gray -brown (albescent on the 

 throat and center of the abdomen), washed with buff on the breast 

 and upper flanks and changing to buff on the lower flanks and under 

 tail coverts. 



The breeding population of Szechwan and western Yunnan and 

 the wintering birds of northern Thailand agree in every character 

 with Blyth's description of leucopterus and are easily separable from 

 auroreus of Kansu, Kiangsu, Manchuria, and Japan. The most 



