THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 541 



My daily observation of this species over a period of years showed 

 no evident f alling-off in numbers of f ull-plumaged males at any season, 

 and I am convinced that an eclipse dress is assumed only very ex- 

 ceptionally or not at all in our area; birds similar to eclipsed adult 

 males of N. a. intermedia are probably nothing but ordinary juveniles 

 of flammaxillaris. If this surmise be correct, postjuvenal molt is just 

 beginning in a male of July 6 and near completion in others of July 

 5 and 25. Postnuptial molt is shown by two females of May 6 and 24 

 and a male of August 13, prenuptial molt by a male of November 26. 



My specimens had the irides dark brown ; the bill black ; the rictus 

 and interior of the mouth deep yellow ; the feet, toes, and claws black. 



The nuptial male has the entire upperparts olive-green, rather 

 brighter on the upper tail coverts; the remiges blackish brown, out- 

 wardly edged with olive-green; the rectrices black, slightly glossed 

 with deep blue, and beneath with outwardly increasingly broad white 

 tips ; the throat and upper half of the breast metallic blue (the chin and 

 center of the throat metallic purple) ; the lower half of the breast com- 

 pletely covered by two bands, the first orange-chestnut, the second black 

 or dusky ; the remaining underparts bright yellow ; at either side of the 

 lower breast a tuft of elongated feathers, golden-orange with bright 

 yellow bases (usually concealed beneath the wing). The female and 

 the juvenile male are separable from those of the purple sunbird only 

 by having the rectrices broadly tipped beneath with white, not nar- 

 rowly tipped with ashy. 



ANTHREPTES HYPOGRAMMICUS LISETTAE Delacour 



Indo-Chinese Purple-naped Sunbird 



Anthreptes hypogranvmica Usettae Delacour, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 47, 1926, 

 p. 22 (Col des Nuages, Annam). 



Anthreptes macularm macularia, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadel- 

 phia, 1929, p. 564 (Chiang Saen). 



This apparently rare form is known from Thailand by only five 

 specimens, four of which are in my collection : a female from Chiang 

 Saen, January 12, 1929 (de Schauensee) ; a male from Doi Mae Kong 

 Ka, October 20, 1936 ; a male from Doi Chiang Dao, December 2, 1936 ; 

 two females from Ban Huai Som and Ban Huai Ki, March 28, 1937. I 

 have, in addition, taken a male at Ban Nam Puat, in Laos, just north 

 of the province of Nan. 



The purple-naped sunbird is a species of the lowland evergreen, as- 

 cending the mountains for a short distance only where their bases are 

 clothed with that type of vegetation. It seems to have an especial 

 liking for wet ravines in which grow profuse stands of palms and wild 

 bananas. 



