Part 170

The ferruginous flycatcher is a rare winter visitant to the Philippine Islands. A specimen of doubtful sex taken in Mindoro by Doctor Mearns measures: Wing, 69; tail, 48; culmen from base, 10; tarsus, 12.5. The folded wings extend beyond the middle of the tail.

Genus ALSEONAX Cabanis, 1850.

The genus Alseonax is similar to Culicicapa and Hemichelidon, having a very broad bill, but the rictal bristles are fewer and shorter than in Culicicapa; the first primary is pointed and but little longer than the primary-coverts. The sexes are alike in colors, being earthy brown above and white below. The species are migratory.

397. ALSEONAX LATIROSTRIS (Raffles).

BROWN FLYCATCHER.

Muscicapa latirostris Raffles, Trans. Linn. Soc. (1822), 13, 312. Alseonax latirostris Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1879), 4, 127; Hand-List (1901), 3, 206; Oates, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1890), 2, 35, fig. 14 (bill); Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1903), 3, 251; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 71. Butalis latirostris Tweeddale, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1878), 284.

Bongao ( ); Negros (Everett); Sulu (*). Ceylon, Indian Peninsula, Burmese provinces, Greater Sunda Islands, Moluccas, eastern Siberia, Japan, China.

"Coloration.--Upper plumage ashy brown, the feathers of the crown with darker centers; tail dark brown, the outer feathers very narrowly tipped with whitish; wings and coverts dark brown, all but the primaries broadly edged with ashy white; lores and a ring of feathers round the eye white; sides of head brown; lower plumage white, tinged with ashy on the breast and sides of the body.

"The young have the crown blackish, streaked with fulvous; the upper plumage and wings with large terminal fulvous spots; the lower plumage like that of the adult but mottled with brown. After the autumn molt and till the following spring the young are very rufous.

"Bill black, the base of the lower mandible yellow; mouth orange; iris brown; legs and claws black. The young bird has the whole bill yellow except the tip, which is dusky. Length rather more than 127; tail, 51; wing, 71; tarsus, 13; bill from gape, 18." (Oates.)

"Young.--Differs from the adult in being flammulated above, the feathers having large ovate spots of ochraceous buff in their centers, the wing-coverts and quills being edged with rufous-buff; sides of face light brown, streaked with buff; under surface of body white, mottled with dusky brown edgings to the feathers; upper tail-coverts and edges to the tail-feathers rufous.

"Observation.--Considerable variation takes place in this species, but only as regards the color of the brown upper surface, which differs in intensity, and as regards the brown on the chest; this varies in extent, being sometimes broad, sometimes narrow, and occasionally dissolved into obscure streaks. The edges to the wing-coverts and quills are often rufescent, and this is probably a sign of immaturity." (Sharpe.)

"Included in this list with a good deal of doubt. Sharpe includes the Philippines in the range of this species, but whether he had any other authority for so doing than the Marquis of Tweeddale's identification of a single immature bird from Negros we do not know. We can find no other record of its occurrence in the Philippines, and are inclined to doubt its ever occurring there at all." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)

Genus CYORNIS Blyth, 1843.

In Cyornis the sexes are slightly different in color; upper parts dark blue or olivaceous; throat and breast some shade of orange-buff or orange-chestnut, or else blue; abdomen light buff or white; bill moderate in size, decidedly, but not conspicuously, flattened; bill from nostril equal to one-half of tarsus and less than middle toe without claw; rictal and nasal bristles moderate; first primary equal to one-half of second; second and third considerably shorter than fourth and fifth, the last two equal and longest; the wing when folded reaching to middle of tail. The young are conspicuously spotted.

Species.

a1. Throat and breast deep blue. ... herioti (p. 436) a2. Throat and breast orange-rufous or buff.

b1. Upper parts blue.

c1. Breast and throat darker and more uniform orange-rufous.

d1. Abdomen and under tail-coverts pure white. ... philippinensis (p. 438) d2. Abdomen and under tail-coverts distinctly washed with chestnut-orange or buff. ... banyumas (p. 437)

c2. Breast lighter orange-rufous; throat much lighter than breast, nearly white (male). ... lemprieri (p. 439)

b2. Upper parts dull brown, more or less washed with an olivaceous tinge; tail and its coverts more or less chestnut or ferruginous brown.

c1. Tail and its upper coverts bright chestnut; no white about eye. ... platenæ (p. 441) c2. Tail and its upper coverts dull rusty brown; a white line above and below eye and extending forward on forehead (female). ... lemprieri (p. 439)

398. CYORNIS HERIOTI Ramsay.

BLUE-BREASTED CYORNIS.

Cyornis herioti Ramsay, Ibis (1886), 159 ([female]); Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1901), 11, 60; Hand-List (1901), 3, 215; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 71. Siphia enganensis Grant, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1896), 5, 2; Ibis (1896), 112; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 111.

Luzon (Heriot, Whitehead).

"Adult male.--Like the male of S. pallidipes, but the sides and flanks are fawn-colored instead of pure white. Length, 152; culmen, 18; wing, 79; tail, 63; tarsus, 22.