

482 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



P. c. ricketti has the forehead, crown, and nape olivaceous-yellow, 

 edged at each side by a broad, black band ; the remaining upperparts 

 bright olive-green; the wings like the mantle but with the greater 

 coverts narrowly tipped yellow to form a bar (the median coverts 

 tipped pale olive-green to form a less distinct bar) ; the lores and 

 postocular streak olive-washed black ; the long supercilium and entire 

 underparts lemon yellow. 



PHRAGAMATICOLA AEDON RUFESCENS Stegmann 



Amur Thick-billed Reed Warbler 



Phragamaticola aedon rufescens Stegmann, Journ. fiir Orn., vol. 77, 1929, pp. 



250-251 (Amur-land). 

 Lusclniola aedon, Gyxdenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1913, p. 



29 (Den Chai) ; Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, 1915, p. 167 (listed). 

 Arunddnax aedon, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1916, p. 



43 (Khun Tan) ; Ibis, 1920, p. 473 ("Siam"). 

 Phragmaticola aedon, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, p. 149 



(Chiang Mai). — de Sohattensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1934, 



p. 229 (Chiang Mai).— Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, p. 430 



(Nan). 

 Phragamaticola aedon rufescens, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 



1936, p. 115 (Chiang Mai, Doi Suthep). 



The thick-billed reed warbler is a common winter visitor to the 

 lowlands of all the northern provinces; the extreme dates for its 

 stay with us are November 21 (1936) at Chiang Mai and May 10 

 (1936) at Ban Mae Chai. I have once found it on Doi Suthep at 2,200 

 feet, March 12, 1932. 



While this species is not likely to be found at any great distance 

 from water, it is by no means so paludicolous as the birds of the 

 genus Acrocephalus : I have constantly observed it, not in the actual 

 reed beds, but among the bushes and low trees growing on rising 

 ground at the edge of a marsh and in the thickets and tall grass cov- 

 ering the banks of canals and irrigation ditches. It is one of the 

 latest of our winter visitors to depart for the northern breeding 

 grounds ; early in May 1936, on the great marsh at Mae Chai, I found 

 it still present in considerable numbers and in full voice — the elab- 

 orate and melodious song being rendered from the very top of some 

 tree or shrub, whence, when alarmed, the bird dived precipitately 

 into the safer cover of grass and sedge. The ordinary call note, 

 heard from the depths of the thickets, is a loud chuck-chuck. 



Four males had the irides brown or gray-brown; the maxilla dark 

 horny brown or horny black; the mandible flesh; the rictus fleshy, 

 tinged orange ; the interior of the mouth bright orange ; the feet and 

 toes greenish gray or plumbeous ; the soles yellowish ; the claws horn. 



The present form differs from the great reed warbler in having the 



