422 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM • 



Kittacincla malaiarica malabarica, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila- 

 delphia, 1934, p. 210 (Chiang Mai). 



The shama is a common resident of all the northern provinces from 

 the level of the plains to about 4,600 feet (Doi Suthep), occurring 

 chiefly in bamboo jungle at whatever elevation but frequently seen 

 also in the evergreen, if it be not too dense. 



This species is sometimes found in villages, where ancient clumps 

 of giant bamboo overhang the drainage ditches and the gardens are 

 deeply shaded by mango and longan, but it is not really a dooryard 

 form, preferring to dwell rather in wild bamboo brakes at a distance 

 from human habitation. Its singing, often continued without pause 

 for minutes at a time, is, in my opinion, superior in sweetness and 

 variety to that of any other bird of our forests and, heard from some 

 dark thicket at early evening, is one of the loveliest sounds imaginable. 

 In habits, the shama seems to differ in no important way from the 

 magpie robin. 



I took a male with the gonads greatly enlarged, May 30, and speci- 

 mens in full juvenal dress, June 13 and July 21, but Eisenhofer sent 

 to Stockholm juveniles shot as early as May 25. Postjuvenal molt 

 is shown by a bird of July 2, postnuptial molt by examples of July 

 26 and August 31. 



A breeding male had the irides dark brown; the bill black; the 

 feet, toes, and claws fleshy. 



The adult male has the entire head and neck, breast, and mantle 

 glossy blue-black; the rump and upper tail coverts pure white; the 

 remiges black ; the long, strongly graduated tail with the two central 

 pairs of feathers black, the next two pairs with the basal half black 

 and apical half white, the two remaining pairs pure white; the under- 

 pays, below the breast, chestnut-rufous ; the thighs white, sometimes 

 more or less suffused with rufous. The adult female differs in having 

 the head and neck, breast, and mantle slaty gray (the crown and 

 mantle sometimes with a steely sheen) ; the underparts, below the 

 breast, orange-rufous. The juvenile may readily be known by its 

 white rump and long tail, patterned like that of the adult. The 

 changes from the immature plumage to that of the old adult are com- 

 plicated and should be studied by someone with suitable material at 

 hand. 



Gyldenstolpe (1916) and de Schauensee (1934) have each considered 

 northern Thai birds to be distinct from more southern ones (inter- 

 posita), but my own material do<s not support this view. If they be 

 correct, our shama must, at least in part, be known either as indica or 

 pellogyna. Whistler and Kinnear (Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc, 

 vol. 36, 1932, p. 75) have recognized indica as separable from mala- 



