572 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



plentiful in April, 1929, at Wiang Pa Pao, Chiang Rai, and Chiang 

 Saen; in Chiang Mai, it is known from Doi Ang Ka (where it was 

 not uncommon at 4,000-4,200 feet in April, 1931) and from Doi Suthep 

 (where it is a rare visitor between 2,700 and 5,500 feet). The extreme 

 dates for its occurrence on Doi Suthep are December 30 (1931) and 

 April 2 (1931). 



This striking species is normally a bird of the grasslands, whether 

 cultivated or wild; on the mountains it is found both at abandoned 

 hai and in the lalang beneath oak and pine. The song, heard in April, 

 is a series of sweet whistles. 



An adult male (Doi Ang Ka, April 6) had the irides brown; the 

 maxilla horny brown, blackish along the culmen ; the mandible horny 

 brown, fleshy at the base; the feet fleshy brown, the toes darker; the 

 claws horny brown, paler at the tip. 



The old male has the entire head (including the long, pointed crest) 

 and body, above and below, black (slightly glossed with blue), each 

 feather more or less broadly fringed with ashy buff; the upper and 

 under tail coverts mixed black and chestnut-rufous ; the wing feathers 

 (including the upper and under coverts) chestnut-rufous, the pri- 

 maries and outer secondaries tipped with black, the inner secondaries 

 almost wholly black ; the rectrices chestnut-rufous, tipped with black, 

 most broadly on the central pair and scarcely at all on the outermost 

 pair. The adult female has the entire upperparts dull olivaceous- 

 brown, the feathers of the crown and mantle with broad blackish-brown 

 centers ; the wings much as in the male but with deep brown and rufous 

 in place of chestnut-rufous and black; the rectrices deep brown, the 

 outermost pair largely rufous ; the underparts brownish buff (brighter 

 on the center of the throat and abdomen) , the sides of the throat, the 

 breast, and flanks indistinctly streaked with blackish brown. A first- 

 winter male (Doi Ang Ka, December 3) resembles the female but has 

 the wings and tail of the adult male. 



