356 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



GARRULAX CHINENSIS LOCHMIUS Deignan 



Lao Black-throated Laughing-thrush 



Garrulax chinensis lochmius Deignan, Zoologica, vol. 26, pt. 3, 1941, p. 241 (Chiang 



Saen Kao, North Thailand). 

 Dryonastes chinensis, Gyldenstolpe, Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, 1915, p. 164 



(listed) ; Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1916, p. 55 (Khun Tan, Chiang 



Rai). 

 Dryonastes chinensis [partim], Gyldenstolpe, Ibis, 1920, p. 486 (Khun Tan, 



Chiang Rai). 

 Dryonastes chinensis propinquus, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 



1931, p. 136 (Chiang Mai). 

 Garrulax chinensis propinquus, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 



1934, p. 183 (Chiang Rai).— Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1936, 



p. 104 (Chiang Mai). 

 Garrulax chinensis propinquus [partim], Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, 



p. 317 (Khun Tan, Doi Hua Mot, Muang Pai). 



This laughing-thrush is locally common throughout our provinces, 

 chiefly on the plains but, on Doi Ang Ka and Phu Kha, occurring as 

 high as 4,000 and 4,500 feet in areas of abandoned cultivation grown 

 up to Rubus and Eupatoriwn. 



Except during the breeding season, the bird is found in small flocks 

 in the densest cover and especially in thick hedgerows bordering cart 

 tracks, whence it may sometimes come out to feed in the open road. 

 Its habits are quite like those of G. I. dia?di, but it is a rather more 

 retiring species and its calls are very different: melodious, conversa- 

 tional whistles, interspersed with harsher notes. 



A pair from Ban Wang Mo, March 31, had the gonads enlarged. A 

 specimen from Muang Fang, July 20, is in full juvenal dress; examples 

 from Doi Hua Mot and Doi Ang Ka, September 4 and 8, are in post- 

 nuptial molt. 



An adult female had the iricles deep red ; the orbital skin slaty ; the 

 bill black ; the feet and toes brown ; the claws horny brown. 



The adult has the bushy feathers of the forehead, the lores, orbital 

 region, postocular streak, chin, and central portion of the throat to the 

 upper breast black ; the crown and nape slaty gray, a narrow area im- 

 mediately behind the forehead streaked with white; the remaining 

 upperparts olivaceous-brown, except for the blackish apical quarter of 

 the tail; the ear coverts and the sides of the upper throat white; the 

 ring of feathers around the vent rufous; the remaining underparts 

 gray, changing to olivaceous-brown on the flanks and under tail 

 coverts. The juvenile differs from the adult in having the gray of the 

 crown paler and less clearly defined from the mantle ; the upperparts 

 more ruf escent, less olivaceous ; the underparts washed with dull rufous 

 and the under tail coverts wholly of this color. 



