THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 557 



The white-rumped mimia is very common throughout the northern 

 provinces, occurring chiefly in the open country of the plains but 

 appearing also in the pa daeng and at clearings in the evergreen as 

 high as 3,800 feet on Doi Suthep and 4,400 feet on Doi Ang Ka. 



Its habits and notes are quite like those of the scaly-breasted munia, 

 and the two species may frequently be observed in the same ricefields 

 although always in separate flocks. 



Gyldenstolpe states (1913) that the present form breeds in colonies 

 and that the pear-shaped nests are nearly always attached to the 

 branches of bamboos ; it seems certain, however, that he has misidenti- 

 fied the nests of Ploceus p. burmanicus. The white-rumped munia 

 breeds in isolated pairs and constructs the same untidy and insecure 

 nest as Lonchura p. topela. I have found a partially completed nest 

 on Doi Ang Ka (4,400 feet) as early as mid- April, but the principal 

 breeding season falls in the early part of the rains. 



Northern specimens in postnuptial molt have been taken between 

 July 31 and August 23. 



A breeding male had the irides red-brown ; the maxilla black ; the 

 mandible plumbeous; the feet and toes slate; the claws dark horny 

 brown. 



The adult has the forehead brownish black, this color gradually 

 changing to the deep brown of the crown, nape, and mantle, each 

 feather of these parts with the shaft buffy white; the rump white,, 

 sometimes more or less sullied with brown ; the upper tail coverts ruf es- 

 cent-brown, with pale rufescent shafts ; the pointed and strongly grad- 

 uated remiges black ; the wings brownish black, the upper coverts with 

 buffy-white shafts ; the sides of the head, the chin, and throat brownish 

 black ; the feathers of the breast and sides of the neck deep brown, each 

 with a buffy-white shaft and a rufescent-brown or rufescent-whitish 

 fringe to give a scaled appearance ; the upper flanks and the belly buffy 

 white, very faintly streaked with blackish ; the lowermost flanks, the 

 thighs, and the under tail coverts rufescent-brown, the feathers with 

 buffy-white shafts ; the under wing coverts and axillaries buff. The 

 juvenile is brown but is easily separable from the young of L. p. topela 

 by its deeper color and its black remiges and rectrices. 



LONCHURA PUNCTULATA TOPELA (Swinhoe) 



Chinese Scaly-breasted Munia 



Munia topela Swinhoe, Ibis, 1863, pp. 3S0-381 (Amoy, China). 



Munia punctulata topela, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1916, 



p. 27 (Chiang Rai) ; Ibis, 1920, p. 457 (Chiang Rai).— Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. 



Bull. 172, 1938, p. 530 (Chiang Mai). 

 Munia punctulata subundulata, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 



1928, p. 559 (Chiang Mai). 



