THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 453 



sparingly in lowland bamboo throughout our area; whether these 

 birds of the plains are visitors from the North or merely wanderers 

 from the neighboring hills is not yet known. 



The present species, which superficially resembles the rarer Cyornis 

 u. unicolor, is frequently seen along the forest tracks on Doi Suthep. 



A male from Doi Ang Ka, April 16, had the gonads greatly 

 enlarged. 



My specimens had the irides dark brown; the bill, feet, toes, and 

 claws black. 



The adult male has the lores conspicuously black; the plumage 

 generally verditer blue, the exposed portions of the remiges and 

 rectrices of a brighter and purer blue; the under tail coverts broadly 

 edged with bluish white. The adult female is similar but has the 

 lores merely dusky and the general color duller and grayer. 



NILTAVA CYANOMELANA CUMATILIS (Thayer and Bangs) 



Chinese Blue-and-white Niltava 



Cyanoptila cumatilis Thayer and Bangs, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 52, No. 8, 



1909, p. 141 (Ma-fu-ling, Hupeh, China). 

 CyanoptUa cyanomelana cumatilis, Greenway, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 1940, 



p. 185 (Doi Nang Kaeo). 



Evidently a very rare winter visitor, this race is known from Thai- 

 land by only two specimens : a male shot by de Schauensee's collectors 

 in the mountains near Ban Chong (Chiang Kai Province), March 30, 

 1935, and another taken by the Asiatic Primate Expedition on Doi 

 Nang Kaeo, 2,800 feet, April 8, 1937. 



An adult male paratype of N. c. cumatilis has the lores, a narrow 

 frontal band, and the point of the chin black; the crown bright, 

 shining blue, this color changing gradually on the nape into the duller 

 blue of the remaining upperparts ; the sides of the head, the throat, and 

 the breast dull blue, the breast margined posteriorly by an indistinct, 

 narrow black or blackish band, interrupted at the center ; the remain- 

 ing underparts white, washed with smoky gray along the flanks (the 

 abdomen irregularly sullied with the same color) ; the under wing 

 coverts and axillaries smoky gray. The adult female has not been 

 seen but in other races has the upperparts light olivaceous-brown, 

 changing to dull rufous-brown on the rump, upper tail coverts, and 

 tail; the chin and center of the throat white or pale buff, to form a 

 patch which flares somewhat where it meets the breast ; the remaining 

 underparts light buffy brown, changing to white on the abdomen and 

 under tail coverts. Some females have the brown portions of the 

 plumage overlaid with gray. 



Greenway (loc. tit.) refers his specimen only provisionally to 

 cumatilis. 



