492 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



■with cream, which posteriorly changes to rufous-cream. The charac- 

 ters of the rectrices serve to separate this species, at any age or 

 season, from P. r. rufescens. 



PRINIA RUFESCENS RUFESCENS Blyth 



Burmese Rufescent Prinia 



Pr[inia] rufescens Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. 16, 1847, p. 456 

 ( Arakan ) . 



Prinia blanfordi, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1913, p. 

 30 (Pak Pan). 



Franklinia rufescens poliocephala, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. 

 Handl., 1916, p. 44 (Khun Tan) ; Ibis, 1920, p. 473 (Khun Tan). 



Franklinia rufescens beavani, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 

 1916. p. 44 (Sop Tui, Khun Tan) ; Ibis, 1920, p. 473 (Pak Pan, Khun Tan, 

 Sop Tui). 



Franklinia rufescens rufescens, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila- 

 delphia, 1929, p. 555 (Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai, Mae Rim) ; 1934, p. 229 

 (Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai, Doi Chiang Dao). — Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. 

 Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, p. 149 (Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai).— Chisen and 

 Boden Kloss, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1932, p. 246 (Doi 

 Suthep). — Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1936, p. 115 (Doi 

 Suthep, Chiang Mai). 



Franklinia gracilis [partim], de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila- 

 delphia, 1934, p. 229 (Chiang Mai [partim,] =Doi Suthep).— Riley, U. S. 

 Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, p. 427 (Khun Tan). 



Franklinia rufescens rufescens [partim], Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, 

 p. 428 (Doi Hua Mot, Khun Tan). 



The rufescent prinia is common in all the northern provinces, 

 where specimens have been taken from the level of the plains to about 

 5,500 feet. 



It is difficult to understand why, at a few localities (Chiang Mai, 

 1,000 feet, and Doi Chiang Dao, 4,600 feet), Prinia r. rufescens and 

 P. h. erro are cohabitant, while at all other places, to judge from col- 

 lected material, either one or the other exists alone. This impression 

 is perhaps partly the result of simple failure to collect such common 

 birds, but it is nevertheless true that, during years of work on Doi 

 Suthep, I never once saw erro on that mountain and that the bird 

 never came to the attention of Eisenhofer and Gyldenstolpe on Doi 

 Khun Tan; on the other hand, during six weeks on Doi Ang Ka, 

 where erro, in nuptial dress, was very common, I failed completely 

 to find rufescens. 



At Chiang Mai, the two species, so similar in actions and require- 

 ments, occurred at exactly the same localities, so that I have some- 

 times had a flock of each in view at the same time. On the hills, 

 erro is apparently restricted to areas of almost pure lalang, but 

 rufescens ranges also through the grass under oak and pine and the 

 bushes beside the tracks in mixed-deciduous forest. 



