390 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Pomatorhinus tickelli, Gyldenstolpe, Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, 1915, p. 165 

 (Khun Tan, Huai Pu). 



Pomatorhinus hypoleucus tickelli, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. 

 Handl., 1916, p. 52 (Khun Tan) ; Ibis, 1920, p. 488 (Khun Tan). 



Pomatorhinus hypoleucos tickelli, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila- 

 delphia, 1934, p. 188 (Doi Chiang Dao). 



Pomatorhinus hypoleucos laotianus, Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, p. 326 

 (Khun Tan). 



The long-billed scimitar babbler is apparently uncommon and very 

 locally distributed in our provinces. Eisenhofer sent to Stockholm a 

 female from Huai Pu, May 27, 1912, and two unsexed examples col- 

 lected in 1914 at Khun Tan ; Gyldenstolpe, at the last-named locality, 

 got two males and two females between September 7 and 23, 1914, and 

 Smith two males at 3,000 feet, February 22, 1932, and May 11, 1933 ; 

 de Schauensee took a female on Doi Chiang Dao, 4,000 feet, January 

 17, 1933; I myself shot an adult female in the low hills at Ban Huai 

 Som, March 28, 1937. 



The species seems to be restricted to extensive areas of bamboo, 

 where it occurs singly or in pairs (sometimes in company with Garrulax 

 spp.), feeding on the ground and flying up into the thorny clumps 

 when alarmed. Gyldenstolpe observes (1916) that it has "a very nice 

 and peculiar and flute-like note which it utters now and then." 



Smith's specimen of May 11 is in postjuvenal molt. 



De Schauensee's female had the irides reddish brown ; the bill horny 

 gray ; the feet and toes gray ; the claws flesh. 



Adults have the upperparts olivaceous-brown, the mantle suffused 

 with rufous (the feathers of the nape sometimes with white central 

 streaks) ; the wings and tail rufous-brown ; the feathers at the sides 

 of the crown and nape with white central streaks and tips (more or 

 less strongly tinged with chestnut-rufous, especially anteriorly), to 

 form a narrow supercilium from above the eye ; the ear coverts rufous- 

 brown or grayish brown; the sides of the neck anteriorly chestnut- 

 rufous, posteriorly olivaceous-brown streaked with white; the chin, 

 throat, center of breast and the belly white ; the feathers at the sides 

 of the breast first white with blackish margins, then deep ashy gray, 

 with broad, black-bordered white central streaks; the lower flanks 

 olivaceous-brown ; the under tail coverts rufous or rufous-brown. 



This is a variable form, and individuals agreeing with the descrip- 

 tion of laotianus occur in every part of Thailand side by side with 

 tickelli: it seems certain that Delacour's race cannot be maintained. 



POMATORHINUS ERYTHROGENYS CELATUS Deignan 



Thai Ferruginous-cheeked Scimitar Babbler 



Pomatorhinus erythrogenys celatus Deignan, Zoologica, vol. 26, pt. 3, 1941, p. 241 

 (Doi Chiang Dao, Chiang Mai Province, northwestern Thailand). 



