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 ( [57]); 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)