Centropus steerii Bourns and Worcester, Minnesota
Acad. Nat. Sci. Occ. Papers (1894), 1, 14; Sharpe, Hand-List
(1900), 2, 166; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 63.
Mindoro (Platen, Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead, McGregor).
"Sexes alike.--Forehead, crown and nape, sides of face, chin, throat,
and upper breast greenish black; the coarse shafts of the feathers
shiny black, the webs with a faint greenish tinge; hind neck and
back, sides of neck, wing-coverts, and breast smoky brown with faint
greenish tinge; hind back and rump slaty black, tips of feathers with
greenish tinge; upper tail-coverts and upper surface of tail uniform
dull metallic green; shafts of feathers jet-black from base to tip;
upper surface of wings earthy brown with metallic green gloss like the
tail, except on the four outer primaries, which have little gloss;
abdomen browner than breast and with less metallic wash; flanks,
thighs, and under tail-coverts like rump; under surface of tail black
with faint metallic blue gloss; under wing-coverts and axillars like
breast; under surface of wing uniform blackish brown. Seven males
measure as follows: Length, 424; wing, 150; tail, 216; culmen, 40;
tarsus, 42. A female measures, 495 in length; wing, 158; tail, 233;
culmen, 44; tarsus, 43." (Bourns and Worcester.)
Steere's coucal is somewhat like the Mindoro coucal but its breast and
neck are smoky brown while the entire plumage of the Mindoro coucal
is black glossed with green. The two species are fairly abundant in
Mindoro and inhabit thick grass patches and jungle.