366 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



investigating every leaf and blossom and getting its head well dusted 

 with pollen at the same time, all the while opening and closing the 

 flabelliform tail and uttering an endless variety of notes, both sweet 

 and discordant, one of the commonest of which is a curious, shrill 

 k-r-r-r-r-r-r. De Schauensee (1929) has perfectly described its 

 "pretty and eerie song" as "six notes, the first four on the same 

 tone, the first about twice as long as the succeeding three, the fifth 

 note one tone lower and the sixth, which is a long note, one tone 

 lower than the fifth"; heard on all sides from the mists that 

 enshroud the peaks after the beginning of the rains, this is one of 

 the most melancholy sounds imaginable. 



No specimens in breeding condition were taken, but I collected 

 examples in postjuvenal molt between July 11 and 14 and have seen 

 birds, shot between November 2 and December 6, in postnuptial molt. 



The adult has the irides red-brown ; the bill, feet, and toes black ; 

 the claws dark horny brown. 



In life it has the upper half of the head and the entire upper- 

 parts glossy black, suffused with ashy on the rump and upper tail 

 coverts ; the primaries with a white or whitish area on the inner web 

 at the base (invisible in the closed wing) ; the central rectrices with 

 narrow pale gray tips, the others with outwardly increasingly broad 

 grayish-white tips (conspicuous from beneath) ; the point of the chin 

 black ; the remaining underparts pure white. After death the mantle 

 soon becomes deep brown. 



Ticehurst has discussed (Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc, 1940, 

 pp. 582-583) the post-mortem color change in this race and the 

 relationship of laeta to melcmoleuca. 



I find no reason why capistrata, gracilis, melcmoleuca, and 

 desgodinsi should be considered otherwise than as conspecific forms. 



LEIOPTILA ANNECTENS SATURATA Walden 



Karen Chestnut-backed Sibia 



L[eioptila] saturata Walden, in Wardlaw Ramsay, Ibis, 1875, p. 352, footnote 



(Karen-ni). 

 Leioptila annectens saturata, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 



1929, p. 535 (Doi Suthep) ; 1934, p. 195 (Doi Suthep).— Deign an, Journ. 



Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, p. 138 (Doi Suthep).— Chasen and Boden 



Kloss, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1932, p. 244 (Doi Suthep).— 



Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, p. 357 (Doi Suthep, Doi Langka, Doi 



Hua Mot). 

 Leioptila annectans saturata, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 



1936, p. 107 (Doi Suthep). 



This sibia is restricted to those high peaks that are clothed with 

 extensive evergreen forest at elevations in excess of 4,600 feet, on 



