20 BULLETIN 172, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



SYSTEMATIC LIST OF BIRDS 



Family COLYMBIDAE: Grebes 



POLIOCEPHALUS RUFICOLLIS ALBIPENNIS (Sharpe) 



Tachybaptes albipennis Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 4, p. 4, 1894 (Indian 

 Peninsula). 



Four males, four females, and one unsexed, Potaram, February 5-6, 

 1926, January 23, 1927; one male and one female, Bangkok, May 22, 

 1926; five males and two females. Bung Borapet, June 23, 1932, 

 March 26-28, 1933; one male, Petrieu, January 20, 1924. 



Dr. W. L. Abbott took one male, Tyching, Trang, July 6, 1896. 



He describes the soft parts as: Iris, straw-yellow; feet, black in 

 front, olive behind; bill, black above, mottled with white beneath, 

 naked skin at base pale green. 



None of the specimens taken by Dr. Smith is in adult plumage, but 

 the single male taken by Dr. Abbott is approximately so. This I 

 have carefully compared with a male and a female from British East 

 Africa and a male from Madagascar in breeding plumage. The Trang 

 male has less white at the base of the secondaries, and the outer web of 

 these feathers is black and the latter color even extends for a short 

 distance from the shaft toward the tip on the inner web. In the 

 African race the secondaries are largely white at the base, and the 

 black on the outer web is confined to a narrow border near the tip. 

 This difference seems to hold also in the specimens in nonbreeding 

 plumage. It seems to me incredible that the form occurring in Africa 

 would be the same as that occurring in India and Siam, and as the 

 latter seems to show a fundamental difference it should be recognized. 



The range of albipennis would then be Ceylon, India, and Burma, 

 east to Siam and probably Cochinchina. 



Poliocephalus ruficollis poggei of China has more black on the 

 cheeks in the breeding season than albipennis, but in the nonbreeding 

 plumage the two forms are much alike, and it would be rather difficult 

 to separate them in this stage. 



P. r. albipennis is more or less a common resident all over Siam in 

 suitable situations; in Peninsular Siam it extends at least to Trang 

 and probably farther. Herbert ^^ reports it not uncommon in central 

 Siam. He received two sets of five eggs each, one from Ayuthia, 

 June 25, and one from Tachin, October 22. 



Family PELECANIDAE: Pelicans 



PELECANUS ROSEUS Gmelin 



Pelecanus roseus Gmelin, Systema naturae, vol. 1, pt. 2, p. 570, 1789 (Manila, 



Philippines). 

 Pelecanus philippensis Gmelin, ibid., p. 571 (Philippines)." 



" Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., vol. 6, p. 355, 1926. 



«« Grant and Mackworth-Praed, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 55, p. 63, 1934, state that this name is a 

 synonym. 



