400 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The present form has the plumage wholly dark chocolate-brown, ex- 

 cept for a more or less distinct eye ring of small white feathers. 



Kinnear (loc. tit.) states that "five [specimens] from the Shan 

 States may for the present be considered the same as [those from] 

 Bhutan." In the absence of material, Thai birds are merely provi- 

 sionally placed under this name. 



Family TURDIDAE 



ENICURUS LESCHENAULTI INDICUS Hartert 



Indian White-crowned Forktail 



Enicurus leschenaulti indicus Haktet, Vogel der palaarktischen Fauna, vol. 1, 



1910, p. 760 (Margherita, Upper Assam). 

 Henicurus leschenaulti, Gyi.denstolpe, Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, 1915, p. 170 



(Khun Tan). 

 Henicurus leschenaulti indicus, Gyldenstolfe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. 



Handl., 1916. p. 48 (Khun Tan, Doi Pha Sakaeng). 

 Bnicurus leschenaulti indicus, Gyldenstolpe, Ibis, 1920, p. 476 (Khun Tan, Doi 



Pha Sakaeng). — de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1929, p. 



542 (Chiang Saen) ; 1934, p. 209 (Doi Suthep, Doi Chiang Dao).— Deign an, 



Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, p. 142 (Doi Suthep) ; 1936, p. Ill 



(Doi Suthep).— Rit.ey. U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, p. 402 (Doi Langka, 



Khun Tan). 



The status of the beautiful white-crowned forktail, in Thailand 

 recorded only from Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai Provinces, is difficult 

 to define. In the former province, where it is known only from the 

 mountains, I considered it to be rather rare on Doi Ang Ka at 4,900 

 feet (April ) and an uncommon permanent resident on Doi Suthep be- 

 tween 3,500 and 4,600 feet (occasionally as low as 2,500 feet) ; Smith 

 took one example on Doi Khun Tan at 3,000 feet (February) ; de 

 Schauensee found it "extraordinarily abundant" on Doi Chiang Dao, 

 2,000 feet, January 23, 1933, "side by side with E. schistaceus but . . . 

 much commoner than the latter." The few specimens known from 

 Chiang Rai, however, have been collected (January) in submontane 

 districts (Chiang Saen, Huai Mae Chan), a fact that may indicate 

 that it is also resident where mountain streams debouch into lowland 

 evergreen or may merely reflect a tendency to descend to lower levels 

 during the cold weather. 



On Doi Suthep the normal altitudinal range of this species (3,500 

 to 4,600 feet) scarcely overlapped with that of its only competitor, 

 E. schistaceus (2,000 to 3,600 feet) ; while indicus haunted tiny streams 

 flowing through ravines in dense evergreen jungle, schistaceus dwelt 

 along the same brooks where, at lower levels, they broadened and ran 

 through more open evergreen and mixed-deciduous forest; it is possi- 

 ble that only in winter will indicus be found in exactly the same en- 

 vironment as schistaceus. 



