Part 221

Genus KITTACINCLA Gould, 1836.

Bill slender, hind toe with claw longer than bill from nostril; rictal bristles small; feathers about bill and chin with the shafts stiff, produced, and slightly recurved; wing pointed; first primary more than one-half the second; rectrices wide and strongly graduated. Colors largely black and white. In the type of the genus (Kittacincla tricolor) the tail is nearly twice as long as the wing, but in none of the Philippine species is the tail so greatly developed. Kittacincla may be distinguished from Copsychus by its more slender bill and wider rectrices.

Species.

a1. Wing slightly longer than tail; superciliary stripe white; breast and abdomen white.

b1. Rump and tail-coverts orange-chestnut ... luzoniensis (p. 560) b2. Rump and tail-coverts black ... superciliaris (p. 561)

a2. Wing decidedly shorter than tail; superciliary stripe wanting; throat, breast, and abdomen nearly all, or entirely, black.

b1. Tail partly white ... nigra (p. 562) b2. Tail all black ... cebuensis (p. 563)

542. KITTACINCLA LUZONIENSIS (Kittlitz).

LUZON SHAMA.

Turdus luzoniensis Kittlitz, Kupf. der Vögel (1832), 7, pl. 11, fig. 2. Cittocincla luzoniensis Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1883), 7, 91; Hand-List (1903), 4, 162; Grant, Ibis (1895), 447; (1896), 116; Grant and Whitehead, Ibis (1898), 239, pl. 6, fig. 4 (egg); Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 218 (habits, eggs); Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1905), 4, 156, pl. 7, fig. 15; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 86.

Catanduanes (Whitehead); Luzon (Kittlitz, Möllendorff, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead, McGregor); Marinduque (Steere Exp.); Polillo (McGregor).

Male.--Head, neck, back, chin, and throat black, the upper parts with a slight blue gloss; on each side of head from above lores to nape a broad superciliary band of white, connected across forehead by a narrow white band; rump and tail-coverts orange-chestnut; breast, abdomen, and crissum white; flanks washed with orange-buff; feathers of thighs brown with white tips; wings black; some of the primaries narrowly edged with white, some of the greater coverts broadly tipped with white; axillars and wing-lining white; rectrices black, the four outer pairs broadly tipped with white. Iris and bill black; feet and nails light flesh-color. Length, about 180 mm. A male from Bataan Province, Luzon, measures: Wing, 82; tail, 82; culmen from base, 18; bill from nostril, 12; tarsus, 26; middle toe with claw, 23.

Adult female.--"Top of the head, mantle, and upper back olive-brown; lores, sides of the head and neck, and the chest dull gray, the chin and middle of throat being somewhat paler, almost whitish; wings washed and edged on the outer web with brown; the rest of the plumage is very similar to that of the male. Length, 183; wing, 76; tail, 81; tarsus, 27.

"An immature female is similar to the above, but the middle of the chin and throat is mostly white, in somewhat marked contrast to the gray chest and sides of the head and neck." (Grant.)

Two eggs of the Luzon shama collected at Cape Engaño, Luzon, on April 27, 1895, are thus described:

"Shape short ovate. Ground-color pale sea-green, profusely spotted and blotched all over, especially toward the larger end, with reddish brown and with some indistinct lilac under-markings. Measurements 21 mm. by 16 mm." Two eggs collected in the same locality on May 26, are "rather more oval in shape than the above and more richly marked. Measurements 23 mm. by 16 mm.

"One nest was placed in the hollowed-out stem of a dead palm broken off by the wind, the other in a hollow stump close to the ground; in both cases the nest was composed of moss and dry grass." (Grant and Whitehead.)

"In Marinduque we shot this species about bamboo clumps in the open. In Luzon we invariably found it in the deep woods. A male from Luzon measures as follows: Wing, 75; tail, 79; culmen, 18; tarsus, 25; middle toe with claw, 22. Bill black; legs, feet, and nails flesh-color." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)

543. KITTACINCLA SUPERCILIARIS Bourns and Worcester.

WHITE-EYEBROWED SHAMA.

Cittocincla superciliaris Bourns and Worcester, Minnesota Acad. Nat. Sci. Occ. Papers (1894), 1, 23; Sharpe, Hand-List (1903) 1, 162; McGregor, Bull. Philippine Mus. (1903), 1, 9; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 86. Cittocincla nigrorum Grant, Ibis (1896), 547; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 218 (habits); Sharpe, Hand-List (1903), 4, 162; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 86.

Masbate (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Negros (Whitehead, Celestino); Ticao (McGregor).

Male.--General color glossy black; a broad superciliary line from above lores to nape white; breast, abdomen, and crissum white with a faint buff wash on flanks; feathers of thighs brown with white tips; wings black; axillars and wing-lining white; tail black, outer pairs of rectrices with narrow white tips, wanting in one specimen. Iris dark; bill black; legs light flesh-color; nails light brown. Length, 165 mm. A male from Masbate measures: Wing, 84; tail, 73; culmen from base, 20; bill from nostril, 12; tarsus, 28; middle toe with claw, 23. A male from Ticao, wing, 79; tail, 66; culmen from base, 18; bill from nostril, 11; tarsus, 27; middle toe with claw, 22.

"A young male, nearly adult, has a few white feathers on chin and throat and a faint wash of light buff on the flanks. A much younger bird has many of the feathers of the back tipped with rusty brown and the greater wing-coverts and quills washed with the same color; chin and throat almost pure white; an ill-defined black collar; the entire under surface washed with light buff, deeper on the flanks.

"This well-marked species is extremely rare in Masbate. It feeds in dense thickets in the deep woods and we never heard it utter a note. The Luzon bird, C. luzoniensis, has a superciliary stripe, but this stripe is not nearly so broad as in this species, and as the strongly marked superciliary line is one of the most noticeable characters of the Masbate bird we have named it accordingly." (Bourns and Worcester.)

544. KITTACINCLA NIGRA Sharpe.

PALAWAN BLACK SHAMA.

Cittocincla nigra Sharpe, Trans. Linn. Soc. 2d. ser. Zool. (1877), 1, 335, pl. 52; Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1883), 7, 90; Hand-List (1903), 4, 161; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 86.