A NEW SPECIES OF SCIMITAR-BABBLER (TIMALIIDAE: JABOUILLEIA) FROM THE SUB-HIMALAYAN REGION OF MYANMAR

Abstract

Abstract An expedition of representatives from the Myanmar Nature and Wildlife Conservation Division and the Smithsonian National Zoological Park's Conservation and Research Center visited the town of Naung Mung on the Nam Tisang River in the extreme northern portion of Kachin State, Myanmar, during February 2004. The town is located in the sub-Himalayan region of the country at 27°29′N, 97°48′E, elevation 540 m, 118 km south of the Tibetan border and 53 km west of the border with Yunnan Province, China. The purpose of the trip was to inventory the poorly known avifauna of the premontane temperate rainforest habitat at that site. On 6 February 2004, we captured two scimitar-babblers that appeared to be representatives of the genus Jabouilleia. An additional individual of the taxon was captured in the same vicinity on 8 February 2004. These were the first records for Jabouilleia from Myanmar, and subsequent investigation showed that these specimens were members of a previously undescribed species, which we...