440 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 

 SIPHIA PARVA ALBICILLA (Pallas) 



Eastern Orange-throated Flycatcher 



Muscicapa AlUcilla Pallas, Zoographia Rosso-asiatica, vol. 1, 1811, p. 462, Aves, 

 pi. 1 (Davuria). 



Siphia albicilla, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1913, p. 36 

 (Ban Huai Horn, Denchai) ; Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, 1915, p. 169 (listed). 



Siphia parva albicilla, Gyldenstolpe, Ibis, 1920, p. 572 (Ban Huai Horn, Den- 

 chai). — de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1928, p. 570 

 (Chiang Mai) ; 1929, p. 545 (between Ban Chong and Ban Mae Sai, Chiang 

 Saen, Chiang Mai) ; 1934, p. 213 (Chiang Dao, Chiang Mai, Khun Tan).— • 

 Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, p. 144 (Chiang Mai) ; 1936, 

 p. 118 (Chiang Mai, Doi Suthep).— Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, p. 

 446 (Bang Mae Klang, Doi Ang Ka, Phrae) . 



The orange-throated flycatcher is a very common winter visitor to 

 the lowlands of all our provinces, occurring also in small numbers on 

 the hills as high as 5,500 feet. The extreme dates for its stay at 

 Chiang Mai are September 20 (1930) and April 15 (1937) ; a solitary 

 female observed by me on Doi Suthep at 4,600 feet, May 30, 1931, 

 should probably be considered a belated migrant. 



This species may be seen at clearings in the evergreen, in deciduous 

 or semideciduous forest, and especially in gardens where the trees are 

 not too densely planted. Upon its first arrival in autumn, each in- 

 dividual stakes out for itself a territory in which it may be found day 

 after day throughout the cold weather, employing any one of several 

 optional perches — a dead twig on a low branch, the coping of a well, 

 a telephone wire — from which it makes sallies after flying insects or 

 stoops to terrestrial prey; I have noted that the same perches are 

 utilized each year. The bird has a pretty habit of erecting the tail 

 above the line of the back, at the same time spreading it to show the 

 white bases of the outer feathers and uttering a characteristic chur-r-r. 



Smith took a female in prenuptial molt at Phrae, April 11, 1930. 



A male had the irides deep brown ; the bill dark brown, with the 

 base of the mandible horny brown ; the feet, toes, and claws brownish 

 black. 



The adult male (rarely seen with us) has the crown and mantle ashy 

 brown; the upper tail coverts black; the rectrices black, all except 

 the two central pairs with the basal two-thirds wholly or largely 

 white ; the lores and eye ring ashy white ; the chin and throat orange ; 

 the sides of the head, the breast, and the upper flanks ashy (sometimes 

 washed with pale orange) ; the remaining underparts white, often 

 more or less strongly suffused with pale orange; the under wing 

 coverts and axillaries creamy or pale orange. The female and the 

 first-winter male are similar to the adult male but differ in having the 

 chin and throat white. 





