Batrachostomus microrhynchus Grant, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1895),
4, 41; Ibis (1895), 463; (1896), 121; Whitehead, Ibis (1899),
384; Sharpe, Hand-List (1900), 2, 43; McGregor and Worcester,
Hand-List (1906), 50.
Luzon (Whitehead, McGregor).
"Adult male in very dark plumage.--Crown brownish black marked and
mottled with buff, nuchal band of the same color; mantle and back very
similar to the crown, but with more buff finely intermixed; scapulars
mostly clear buff, with mottled black barrings on the inner webs and
a black subterminal spot; wing-coverts black mottled with rufous,
most of the median and greater with a whitish spot at the extremity
of the outer web; sides of head, chin, and throat finely mottled and
barred with black and buff, darker on the hinder cheek; bands above
and below the chest whitish, edged with black; chest whitish buff,
finely mottled with black; belly rather paler and more coarsely marked.
"Adult female.--General color uniform chestnut, with scarcely a trace
of any black markings except on the secondary quills; in other respects
very similar in plumage to the female of B. septimus. The outer webs
of the scapulars rufous-buff, each with a small subterminal black
spot; greater and median wing-coverts with a terminal white spot on
the outer web, edged internally with black; nuchal and pectoral bands
white, edged with black." (Grant.)
Another male specimen was taken by Whitehead near Cape Engaño,
northern Luzon. "It is an interesting specimen in the chestnut phase of
plumage, the upper parts being like those of the female type described
[above], but the outer webs of the scapulars are pale buff, as in
the dark-colored male type, though the subterminal black spots are
small, as in the female. The feathers of the throat and of the chest
between the white bands are paler chestnut than in the female, and
have white middles irregularly edged and barred with black; belly,
flanks, and under tail-coverts brownish white, with a few faint
reddish brown mottlings.
"As will be seen, the length and width of the culmen are slightly
greater than in the types. There can not be the slightest doubt that
these three differently plumaged birds all belong to one species,
though Mr. Whitehead was inclined to believe that the dark and rufous
forms represented distinct species." (Grant.)
Grant's measurements of the three specimens described above, reduced
to millimeters, are as follows: Male and female from Lepanto: Wing,
127 to 132; tail, 99 to 102; tarsus, 17 to 18; length of culmen,
19; width at gape, 29. Male from Cape Engaño: Wing, 131; tail, 104;
tarsus, 18; length of culmen, 22; width of gape, 32.
In a female from Irisan, Benguet Province, the iris was pale yellowish;
bill light horn-brown, basal half of cutting edge dull pea-green;
inside of mouth brighter pea-green; legs and nails dirty white;
edge of eyelids brown. Wing, 132; tail, 104; culmen from base, 20;
width of bill at gape, 30; tarsus, 17.