438 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The inclusion of the brown-breasted flycatcher in our list is based 

 upon the two males from Pang Hua Phong, May 27, 1914, after which 

 Gyldenstolpe described his "Alseonax siamensis." Judged by the late 

 date of collection, the author may be quite correct in his statement that 

 it is "probably a resident in Northern Siam where it inhabits the higher 

 mountains"; it must, in any event, be a bird of great rarity in our 

 provinces. 



Gyldenstolpe (1916, b) notes that his specimens had "iris brownish 

 black; bill horn colour and with the lower mandible dirty yellow; 

 legs black." 



The full English description of "Alseonax siamensis" (Kungl. 

 Svenska Vet.-Akad. HandL, 1916, pp. 74-75) is as follows: 



General colour above "Saceardo's Umber" (Ridgway, Nomencl. Colours, plate 

 39 [= plate 29]); upper tail-coverts washed with ferruginous; wing-coverts 

 dusky brown, margined with "Saceardo's Umber" ; primaries and secondaries 

 dusky brown, the latter edged with isabelline on the inner webs: tail dusky 

 brown with pale brown shafts ; lores and a narrow line round the eye greyish 

 white ; ear-coverts "Saceardo's Umber" ; chin and upper throat greyish white 

 slightly washed with brown ; lower throat, breast and flanks ashy brown ; middle 

 of abdomen, vent and under tail-coverts white; thighs brown; under wing- 

 coverts and axillaries light fawn colour; quills dusky brown below and fawn 

 colour along the inner webs; tail-feathers brownish white below with white 

 shafts to the feathers ; wing lining light fawn colour. 



Gyldenstolpe described "Alseonax siamensis" as "related to Alseonax 

 latirostris Eaffl. from which it is, however, clearly distinguished by 

 being umber brown . . . above instead of ashy brown." In 1920, he 

 made it a race of latirostris and, in 1926 (Ark. for Zool., vol. 19 A, No. 1, 

 pp. 61-62), he synonymized it with Alseonax latirostris latirostris, 

 while changing his A. I. latirostris of 1920 to A. I. poonensis (Sykes). 

 Uncritically accepting his disposition as correct, I did not avail myself 

 of the opportunity of examining the type specimen in 1939. 



As has been shown by Whistler and Kinnear ( Journ. Bombay Nat. 

 Hist. Soc, vol. 36, 1932, pp. 85-86) and confirmed by my own studies, 

 continental birds must all be placed under the name latirostris. 

 Among them we find a certain amount of color variation, both sea- 

 sonal and individual, but it is noteworthy that, in a series of 89 speci- 

 mens (17 of them collected in northern Thailand between September 

 26 and May 3), not one agrees with the diagnosis of " Alseonax 

 siamensis," while, on the other hand, Butalis muttui Layard ("common 

 above 5,000 feet" in the Southern Shan States, fide Rippon, Ibis, 1901, 

 p. 541) agrees with it in every important character. I am forced to 

 believe, then, that " Alseonax siamensis" is a renaming of Muscicapa 

 muttui. 



The measurements given by Gyldenstolpe for his examples (wing 

 length: 68, 69 mm.) indicate that they belong with the smaller race, 

 Muscicapa muttui muttui, and that the name Muscicapa (Alseonax) 



