2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I03 



The present study has been inspired and facilitated by the valuable 

 contributions to an understanding of the Indian Priniae made by 

 Whistler and Kinnear ' and by Ticehurst and Whistler." 



For the loan of long series of specimens to be added to those in the 

 collection of the United States National Museum (U.S.N.M.) and 

 without which the work would not have been possible, I am indebted 

 to the authorities of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 

 (A.N.S.), of the American Museum of Natural History ( A.M.N. H.), 

 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (M.C.Z.) and of the Prince- 

 ton Museum of Zoology (P.M.Z.). 



I 



The Indo-Chinese populations of Prinia rufescens, hitherto sub- 

 merged in Franklinia rufescens (Blyth), prove, upon examination of 

 series in comparable plumages, to fall into no fewer than five well- 

 characterized races, localized in just those areas where subspecific 

 differentiation normally appears in numerous other passerine species. 



I. PRINIA RUFESCENS RUFESCENS Blyth 



Pr[inia] rufescens Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. 16, p. 456, 1847 

 (Arakan). 



Front, crown, and nape brownish slate (summer) ; rufous brown, 

 tinged with slate (winter). 



Mantle dark rufous brown (summer) ; bright rufous brown 

 (winter). 



Well-marked supraloral streak (often continued beyond the eye as 

 a short supercilium) and the tiny feathers of both eyelids white 

 (summer and winter). 



Under parts white, washed with bufif, most strongly along the flanks 

 and on the thighs and under tail-coverts (summer) ; white, washed 

 with rufous buff, most strongly along the flanks, over the greater part 

 of the abdomen, and on the thighs and under tail-coverts (winter). 



Tail short in summer, slightly longer in winter. 



Range. — In Indo-China (excepting Burma) : the northern half of 

 Indochine; East Siam, south to the river Ale Mu'n (U:bon Prov- 

 ince) ; all North Siam; West Siam, south to lat. 14° N. 



Walden has named Prinia beavani from two examples collected at 

 Shwegun, Salwin River, Tenasserim (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1866 



'Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc, vol. 36, pp. 564-566, 573-582, 1933. 

 Mbis, 1939, pp. 761-763. 



