412 BULLETIN 18 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



centers ; the upper tail coverts ferruginous ; the remiges and rectrices 

 blackish brown, the former narrowly edged with pale rufous; the 

 underparts grayish brown (the feathers of the throat, breast, upper 

 abdomen, and flanks usually with darker centers) , more or less suffused 

 with pale rufous ; the under tail coverts and thighs pale rufous. Juve- 

 niles of either sex resemble the adult female but the young male may 

 be known by his whitish wing patch. 



JS. c. burmanica was originally separated from caprata on slight size 

 differences alleged to exist between adult males of the two forms; 

 Ticehurst, showing that these distinctions do not hold, has synony- 

 mized burmanica with caprata (Ibis, 1938, pp. 221-222) . Comparison 

 of adult females, however, shows that continental birds are easily sepa- 

 rable by their darker underparts, this character appearing most 

 markedly on the breast, the feathers of which have broader dark cen- 

 ters, with resultant reduction of the amount of pale rufous. 



SAXICOLA TORQUATA STEJNEGERI (Parrot) 



Japanese Rufous-breasted Stonechat 



Pr[atincola] rubicola stejnegeri Parrot, Verh. Orn. Ges. Bayern, vol. 8, 1908, p. 124 



("Iterup" [Yetorofu] and "Jesso" [Hokkaido], Northern Japan). 

 Pratincola torquata stejnegeri, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 



1916, p. 51 ("Ban Kia") ; Ibis, 1920, p. 475 ("Several parts of Siam"). 

 Saxicola torquata stejnegeri [partim], de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 



Philadelphia, 1929, p. 542 (Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai [partim], Chiang Saen) ; 



1934, p. 208 ("Tung Sio"). 

 Saxicola torquata stejnegeri, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, 



p. 142 (Chiang Mai) ; 1936, p. Ill (Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai).— Riley, U. S. 



Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, p. 400 (Nan). 



The Japanese stonechat is a common winter visitor to the lowlands 

 of all our provinces between September 16 (Chiang Mai) and April 16 

 (Nan). It has, however, also been found several times on the high 

 mountains of Chiang Mai Province: at "Ban Kia," 4,600 feet, August 

 24; on Doi Ang Ka, 4,200 feet, ca. September 2; on Doi Suthep, 5,500 

 feet, September 7 ; on the same hill, 3,300 feet, March 7. I suggest that 

 these montane individuals, which vanish from the area in advance of 

 the first arrival of lowland wintering birds and pass again to the North 

 before the latter's departure, have their origin in some northern terri- 

 tory more or less remote geographically from that of their racial 

 brethren of the plains. Stanford has noted (Ibis, 1938, p. 222) a 

 similar small migration through the hills of the Myitkyina district of 

 northern Burma, between March 15 and April 21. 



The account of the habits of the pied stonechat will apply equally 

 well to this species. It may be said here that the English vernacular 

 name of the genus is quite inappropriate to the birds seen in Thailand, 

 inasmuch as rocks are infrequent or wholly lacking in the cultivated 

 lands inhabited by them. 



