THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 515 



with the base yellow and the tip horny black) ; the rictus yellow ; the 

 feet and toes yellowish fleshy ; the soles yellow ; the claws horn. 



Thai examples in autumn have the entire upperparts grayish 

 olivaceous-brown, everywhere (including the rump and upper tail 

 coverts) boldly and broadly streaked with black; the wing feathers 

 brownish black, broadly margined with grayish buff; the rectrices 

 brownish black, the two outermost pairs tipped grayish white; a broad 

 but rather indistinct supercilium pale buff; the underparts pale buff 

 or buffy white, boldly streaked with black at the sides of the throat, 

 on the breast and upper abdomen, and along the flanks. Many spring 

 birds differ in having the entire upperparts lightly suffused with buff ; 

 the supercilium, chin, throat, and upper breast cinnamon-pink; the 

 remaining underparts pale pinkish buff ; the black streaks few beneath 

 and restricted to the breast and flanks. All types of intermediates 

 between these two plumages may be seen in winter and spring. 



Family ARTAMIDAE 



ARTAMUS FUSCUS Vieillot 



Ashy Swallow-shrike 



Artamus fuscus Vieillot, Nouveau dictiounaire d'histoire naturelle, nouv. £d., vol. 

 17, 1817, p. 297 (Bengal). 



Artamus fuscus, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1916, p. 

 43 (Chiang Saen) ; Ibis, 1920, p. 471 ("Throughout the whole country").— 

 de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1929, p. 551 (Chiang 

 Mai) ; 1934, p. 225 (Chiang Mai).— Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. 

 Suppl., 1931, p. 147 (Chiang Mai) ; 1936, p. 122 (Chiang Mai, Doi Suthep). 



The swallow-shrike is a very common permanent resident in de- 

 forested lowland districts throughout the northern provinces ; I have 

 found it above the level of the plains only on Doi Suthep, where, 

 during the cold weather and since the construction of a road, it occurs 

 occasionally as high as 2,700 feet. 



Outside the breeding season, this familiar species may be seen 

 in bands of many dozen individuals, which wheel in wide circles above 

 the ricefields like so many huge, gray swallows. Each flock has some 

 central point — an isolated Dipterocarpus or sugar-palm or clump of 

 giant bamboo — to which the members repair between flights and at 

 the top of which, huddled close together along the branches, they 

 settle for the night. The unmistakable call is a sharp, nasal md-d-d, 

 md-d-d, md-d-d, endlessly repeated in flight or at rest and heard from 

 the sky even when the birds are almost at the limit of vision. 



I have taken juveniles, newly on the wing, at Ban Pang Ai, July 23. 

 Adults collected at various localities between July 6 and 30 are in 

 postnuptial molt. 



