Part 20

Tarsus slender, feathered at base; bill slender, gape small, and nostril covering conspicuously swollen; tail nearly square or greatly graduated; colors blackish or reddish brown.

Subfamilies.

a1. Tail moderate, nearly square; plumage mostly blackish with purple and green metallic reflections. ... Columbinæ (p. 51) a2. Tail greatly elongated and graduated; plumage mostly chestnut or rufous-brown with little metallic color. ... Macropyginæ (p. 52)

Subfamily COLUMBINÆ.

Genus COLUMBA Linnæus, 1758.

Bill comparatively slender; membrane behind nostril greatly swollen and bulging out on the side; first primary very slightly scooped on inner web; tarsus feathered at the base. The only Philippine species is almost entirely black, glossed with green and purple.

43. COLUMBA GRISEOGULARIS (Walden and Layard).

GRAY-THROATED PIGEON.

Ianthoenas griseogularis Walden and Layard, Ibis (1872), 104, pl. 6. Columba griseigularis Salvadori, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1893), 21, 313; Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 72; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 13.

Bá-lud mai-tim, Manila; bá-duc, Batan.

Basilan (Everett, Bourns & Worcester); Batan (McGregor); Cagayan Sulu (McGregor); Calayan (McGregor); Guimaras (Layard, Meyer); Lubang (McGregor); Luzon (Gevers, Whitehead); Mindanao (Steere Exp., Platen, Goodfellow); Mindoro (McGregor); Negros (Everett, Whitehead); Romblon (McGregor); Sibutu (Everett); Sibuyan (McGregor); Sulu (Burbidge); West Bolod (Mearns). Northern Borneo.

Adult (sexes alike).--General color slate-black with metallic purple or green tips to the feathers; chin, upper throat, and sides of face below eyes pale gray; head, neck, back, breast, abdomen, and tips of wing-coverts, and upper and under tail-coverts glossed with metallic purple changing to green; remiges and rectrices black without metallic reflections, their coverts largely black with only the tips metallic; colors change greatly with the angle at which the specimen is held. Iris bright yellow; base of bill dark red, tip light yellow; feet and bare space about eye red. Length, 380 to 430; two males, wing, 248; tail, 161; exposed culmen, 22; tarsus, 28.

Young.--Differs from the adult in having metallic edges of feathers narrower on body, and wanting on wing-coverts; throat and breast blackish brown, each feather tipped with cinnamon.

Although of wide distribution, this species does not occur in great numbers except on the Island of Batan in the Batanes group where many individuals are caught with bird-lime and sold to visiting ships.

Subfamily MACROPYGINÆ.

Genus MACROPYGIA Swainson, 1837.

Bill small and rather slender; upper part of tarsus slightly feathered; tail long and greatly graduated; longest and shortest rectrices differing in length by about half the wing.

Species.

a1. Smaller and lighter, without a vinous wash on breast and abdomen; dark rufous-brown above. ... tenuirostris (p. 52) a2. Larger and darker, a faint vinous wash on breast and abdomen; blackish brown above. ... phæa (p. 53)

44. MACROPYGIA TENUIROSTRIS Bonaparte.

SLENDER-BILLED CUCKOO DOVE.

Macropygia tenuirostris Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Avium (1854), 2, 57; Salvadori, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1893), 21, 346; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 491; Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 74; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 13. Macropygia eurycerca Tweeddale, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1878), 288 (young).

Ba-tic'-la-uin', Manila; i-bu-oo, Benguet Igorot.

Balabac (Everett); Basilan (Everett, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Bohol (McGregor); Bongao (Everett); Leyte (Whitehead); Luzon (Meyer, Heriot, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead, McGregor); Marinduque (Steere Exp.); Masbate (Bourns & Worcester); Mindanao (Everett, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Mindoro (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor, Porter); Negros (Meyer, Steere, Everett, Keay); Palawan (Lempriere, Whitehead, Platen, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Romblon (McGregor); Sibutu (Everett); Sibuyan (McGregor); Sulu (Burbidge); Tawi Tawi (Bourns & Worcester).

Adult male.--Head, sides of neck and breast, and lower parts bright cinnamon-rufous, much lighter on throat and chin, darker on flanks, under tail-coverts, and rectrices; above including wings and tail dark brown; most of the feathers except remiges and rectrices, edged with fine rufous dots; feathers of neck covered with irregular vermiculations of rufous and blackish brown; sides of neck and of body and crop marked with a few black cross-lines; neck and its sides glossed with amethystine changing to green; metallic colors extending faintly onto back and rump; rectrices from above dark brown, except two outermost pairs which are cinnamon-rufous, each crossed by a diagonal black bar; next pair similar but more obscurely colored; inner webs of primaries edged with cinnamon. Iris of three rings, outermost reddish or crimson, middle ring black, innermost pale straw; skin around eye dirty brown; eyelids and basal half of bill crimson; distal end of bill brown; legs and feet bright crimson; nails brown. Length, about 394; three males average, wing, 189; tail, 200; exposed culmen, 16; tarsus, 23.

Adult female.--Nearly like the male but with very little if any metallic gloss; neck and its sides black, barred with light cinnamon; crop and lower throat more or less barred and vermiculated with black.

Young.--A young bird from Sibuyan with tail less than half grown differs from the adult female in the throat- and breast-feathers being blackish brown, edged with rufous, and in having bars of upper parts more sharply cut, being produced by solid colors rather than by dots; the rectrices seen from above have narrow rufous tips and from below, each is crossed by a narrow, subterminal gray line.

The adult plumage is here described from a pair of birds taken at Irisan, Benguet Province, on May 1, 1903. That these were breeding birds was shown by dissection and was noted on the tags. If the rusty edges are absent from the wing-coverts of fully adult birds then it must require two or possibly three years for them to attain that plumage.