A NEW NUTHATCH FROM YUNNAN 



By H. G. DEIGNAN 

 Division of Birds, U. S. National Museum 



A series of 26 specimens of the giant nuthatch, representing the 

 material in the United States National Museum, the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History, and the Academy of Natural Sciences, 

 Philadelphia, shows that the bird of northwestern Yunnan is quite 

 distinct from magna, based on specimens from Karen-ni. For the 

 new form I propose the name 



SITTA MAGNA LIGEA, n. subsp. 



Type. — Adult male, U.S.N.M. no. 297271 ; collected at Likiang, 

 northwestern Yunnan, 8,200 feet, August 1923, by Dr. Joseph F. 

 Rock. 



Diagnosis. — Readily distinguished from Sitta magna magna by its 

 markedly shorter and laterally slenderer bill, although not separable 

 by color characters or other measurements. The culmens of nine males 

 from northwestern Siam and the Shan States measure (from the 

 base of the rhamphotheca) 30.3 to 32.5 mm (average: 31.4 mm) ; 

 of eight females from the same localities, 29.5 to 32.5 mm (average: 

 31 mm). On the other hand, the culmens of four males from the 

 mountains of Likiang measure 26 to 28.5 mm (average: 27.1 mm). 

 The difference in the "heaviness" of the bill is scarcely to be shown 

 in figures, but is very obvious to the eye. 



Range. — Northwestern Yunnan : the Likiang mountains, 8,200 to 

 10,000 feet; Yung-pei. 



Remarks. — I have not seen topotypical magna, but feel justified in 

 considering Siamese specimens, taken about 50 miles east of Karen-ni, 

 to belong to that form, especially since they agree perfectly with 

 Shan States examples which British authors have held to be identical 

 with Karen-ni birds. 



Two Shan birds, whose measurements are not included above, are 

 not fully mature, as is indicated by the texture of the plumage. In 

 these specimens, the bill is as short as in the Likiang examples, but 

 at the same time as thick laterally as in fully adult Shan specimens. 

 a combination which gives it a peculiarly blunt appearance for a 

 nuthatch. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 97, No. 9 



