560 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



below (without ashy tinge on the mantle) and by the stronger blackish 

 suffusion on their abdomen, thighs, and under tail coverts. 



PASSER MONTANUS MALACCENSIS A. Dubois 



Malaysian Tree Sparrow 



[Passer montanus] var. Malaccensis A. Dubois, Faune illustree des vert6br6s 



de la Belgique, ser. des oiseaux, vol. 1, 1887, pp. 572 [nomen nudum], 573-574 



(Malacca). 

 Passer montanus malaccensis, Gyldenstolpe, Ibis, 1920, p. 458 ("Throughout the 



country"). — de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1928, p. 



559 (Chiang Mai) ; 1934, p. 236 (Chiang Mai). — Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. 



Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, p. 152 (Chiang Mai) ; 1936, p. 126 (Chiang Mai). 



Although few specimens have ever been taken, the tree sparrow 

 occurs throughout the long-inhabited lowland districts of all our 

 provinces. 



In Thailand, where no form of the house sparrow is resident, the 

 tree sparrow abounds in cities and villages, visiting the open fields 

 only in the immediate vicinity of human settlement; the larger the 

 town, the more numerous is the bird sure to be. The notes and habits 

 of the species are much like those of Passer domesticus and thus too 

 well known to require further comment. 



The nok chok ban nests about inhabited houses in any recess too 

 small to accommodate the house myna ; the month of June seems to 

 be the height of the breeding season. A pair that bred under the 

 eaves of my veranda (in a corner where the rafters made a covered 

 cavity) had completely filled the available space with a rude structure 

 of dried grass and bamboo leaves, rootlets, rags, paper, string, rope, 

 and tow, lined with feathers of domestic fowls ( Gallus and Numida) . 

 I removed the nest finally (June 12), frightening out three young, 

 able to fly well, and finding several rather large white larvae living 

 amidst the dung and other litter on the floor of the chamber. By 

 June 17, the birds had filled the recess with a new nest and were again 

 breeding. A specimen of September 19 has completed the post- 

 nuptial molt except that the outermost primary is still partly 

 ensheathed. 



A female of February 25 had the irides brown; the bill black; the 

 feet and toes dusky flesh ; the claws horny brown. Juveniles and non- 

 breeding adults have the bill horny brown, with the base yellowish. 



Adults of either sex have the forehead, crown, and nape vinaceous- 

 chestnut; the feathers of the back and scapulars ferruginous with 

 broad black central streaks, the median and greater upper wing 

 coverts similar but also with buffy- white tips to form two conspicuous 

 wing bars ; the remiges blackish, conspicuously edged along the outer 

 web with ferruginous ; the rump, upper tail coverts, and rectrices buffy 



