BIEDS FROM SIAM AND THE MiVLAY PENINSULA 527 



MUNIA MAJA MAJA (Linnaeus) 



Loxia niaja Linnaeus, Systema naturae, ed. 12, vol. 1, p. 301, 1766 (India orientali; 

 Malacca) . 



One male, Pak Bhayoon, Tale Sap, July 11, 1929. 



Dr. W. L. Abbott collected four adult males, one immature male, 

 and four females in Trang (Tyching, May 20, 1896; Lay Song Hong, 

 December 1, 1896; near base of Kao Nom Plu, March 9, 1897; Trang, 

 March 7, 8, 1897); one male, the Dindings, Straits of Malacca, April 

 15, 1900; one male, Tanjong Dungun, Trengganu, September IS, 1900. 

 He gives the soft parts as: Iris dark brown; bill horny or leaden blue; 

 feet dark leaden blue. 



This species is very variable. In the adults there are two plumages, 

 one in which the back is sorghum brown and the other in which it is 

 walnut brown. The upper tail coverts vary from claret brown to a 

 mars yellow; the latter color is usually old and worn and appears to 

 be replaced by the claret brown. The majority of the specimens 

 examined have the head and chest washed with wood brown, deepest 

 on the latter, only the forehead and around the eyes whitish. A few 

 specimens have the head wliite, and rarely the head and chest are 

 white. 



The immature male listed above from Trang was collected March 9. 

 The lower parts are cinnamon-buff; back sayal brown, the pileum huffy 

 brown; wings and tail dusky edged with the color of the back. 



A small series from Java is hardly, if at all separable, from the 

 mainland bird. 



The form ranges from Trang and Patalung in Peninsular Siam south 

 to the Malay States, Sumatra, and Java. It is a Malayan form, and 

 the specimens taken by Dr. Abbott and Dr. Smith are the northern- 

 most on record. 



MUNIA ATRICAPILLA ATRICAPILLA (Vieillot) 



Loxia airicapilla Vieillot, Histoire naturelle des-plus beaux oiseaux chanteura 

 de la zone torride, p. 84, pi. 53, 1805 (Les Grandes Indes; restricted by 

 Robinson and Kloss ^^ to lower Bengal). 



One adult male and one immature male, Bung Borapet, June 20, 

 24, 1932. 



Tliis form is much darker, both above and below, than sinensis; the 

 middle of the breast and belly is black or fuscous ; and the longer upper 

 tail coverts are chestnut. The immature male taken June 24 is buffy 

 but is already molting into the adult plumage. 



Whether the form of northern Siam belongs to AI. a. ruhronigra 

 Hodgson I do not know, as I have seen no specimens from that part of 

 the country. Chasen and Kloss ^^ seem to regard Vieillot's name as 

 an earlier name for it, and I am employing it in this sense. 



« Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, vol. 5, p. 362, 1924. 

 »• BuO. Raffles Mus., no. 2, p. 23, 1929. 



