THE BIRDS OF BANGKOK. 197 



and thewliole lower plumage, with tlie under wing-coverts, pale yellow, 

 aiiffiisad with dusk}^ on the breast and flanks ; the whole upper plumage 

 hair-brown ; median wing-coverts dark brown, edged with j'ellowisli ; 

 greater wing-coverts and quills dark brown, edged with greenish brown ; 

 tail brown, narrowly edged paler.* 



Iris brown. Bill blaflc in adult male, horn-colour in female 

 and immature male. Legs dusky olive to plumbeous flesh-colour. 

 Claws horn-colour. 



Diilrihn.tion. With the exception of my Bangkok record, this 

 bird has appareiuly only been reported, up to the present, from 

 Nortiiern Siam. Gyldenstolpe remarks that it is "apparently very 

 rare and only confined to the Northern parts of the countr)'. How- 

 ever, AVilliam^on records it from Bangkok, which seems to me a little 

 doubtful." As to this I would observe that the bird is fairly common 

 here, and that I have had altogether about 18 local specimens, and 

 could have obt;iined maiij' more. I have also seen it at Muak-Iek, in 

 Kastern Siam, and shot a pair ( c? and 2 ) at Si'iracha, in South-eastern 

 Siam, in Decemb(»r. The only parts of the country from which it has 

 not yet been reported are, therefore, the Western and Peninsular 

 divisions, and these may be outside its range, as I have not been able to 

 fi:id any records of its occurrence in Tenasserim or the Malay Penin- 

 sula. As this Sparrow is known to extetul to Cochin-China (Fiiun. Brit. 

 India, Birds II, p. 2 12), its occurrence in Bangkok and in South-eastern 

 Siam appears quite natural. 



Ifiiliitit, cOi'. In common with the list species, this is a resident 

 here, but is not so familiar a bird, being not only less numerous, but 

 also more partial to jilantations and copses, rather than houses. At 

 the same time, it not infre(juently enters our gardens, and I have on two 

 occasions found it nesting there — once, in Bingkok, in a hollow bamboo 

 used for the scafTolding of a house un<ler repair, and a second time 

 under the ridge of the roof of a building in the compound of the rail- 

 way station at Muak-lek, in Eistern Siam. I have generally observed 

 this bird in jiairs, and it is easil}' distinguished from its better-known 

 congener by its brighter plumage, as well as by its louder and more 

 pleasing notes. 



* 'I'lie desfiipiiiins lie.ro given ililTcr to some extent from those of Oates 

 in the Fuiuia nf liritisli liidiii, Hiids II, p. 242. 



vol,. II, .MAV I:M7. 



