488 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Orthotomus sutorius maculicollis, Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, p. 423 



(Ban Nam Khian). 

 [Orthotomus sutorius] inexpectatus, Greenway, Bull. Mus. Corop. Zool., 1940, 



p. 188 (Doi Nang Kaeo). 



The long-tailed tailorbird is very common or even abundant through- 

 out the northern lowlands ; on Doi Suthep, and without doubt on other 

 mountains as well, it occurs in small numbers at inhabited clearings as 

 high as 3,500 feet. 



This little warbler, one of the best-known birds of our provinces, 

 occurs impartially in gardens, hedgerows, thickets, bamboo groves, 

 and even the pa daeng. It is a thoroughly domesticated species and 

 regularly explores the vines that shade one's veranda or hops about on 

 the floor without regard for human occupants, the tail carried cocked 

 forward above the back or, in flight, pumped energetically up and 

 down in a most ludicrous fashion. It has a number of shrill, monot- 

 onous, and rather annoying calls, which are heard constantly, during 

 even the hottest hours of the day, throughout the seasons of heat and 

 rain: weet-weet-weet / whee-wTiee-wTiee ; tu-wheet', tu-wheet', tu- 

 ivheet'; pee'-to, pee'-to, pee' -to; etc., etc. The male, while vocalizing, 

 swells the lower throat in such a way as to disclose at each side an area 

 of naked blackish skin, which is normally concealed by the adjacent 

 feathers. 



The breeding season probably embraces the whole period from April 

 to August, at which time the males are wearing the greatly elongated 

 central rectrices. At Chiang Mai I took females with the gonads 

 slightly enlarged, May 3, and greatly enlarged, June 1. Gyldenstolpe 

 has reported (1916) finding a nest with two fresh eggs near Doi Pha 

 Sakaeng, July 22, 1914 ; in my garden at Chiang Mai I discovered a 

 nest with three apparently fresh eggs as late as August 19, 1930. The 

 remarkable nest has been often described but I may mention that, at 

 Chiang Mai, all examined by me were formed from mango leaves sewn 

 together. A male collected at Chiang Mai, July 6, is just beginning 

 the postnuptial molt. 



An adult male had the irides tan ; the edges of the eyelids brownish 

 yellow ; the maxilla brownish horn, darker on the culmen, the commis- 

 sure edged pale fleshy; the mandible pale fleshy; the feet and toes 

 fleshy pink ; the claws horn. 



This species has the forehead and forecrown dull orange-rufous, 

 changing to dull olivaceous-brown on the occiput and nape ; the remain- 

 ing upperparts bright olive-green ; the lores and an indistinct super- 

 cilium buffy white ; the underparts buffy white, the dark gray bases of 

 the feathers often showing irregularly to give a broadly streaked 

 appearance ; the thighs rufous-buff. 



