Cyornis lemprieri Sharpe, Ibis (1884), 319; Hand-List (1901), 3,
216; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 72.
Siphia lemprieri Everett, Jour. Str. Br. Roy. As. Soc. (1889),
20, 133; Ibis (1895), 25.
Balabac (Everett); Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester); Palawan
(Everett, Lempriere, Platen, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester,
Celestino).
"Adult male.--General color above dull blue, with half concealed
tufts of white on the sides of the rump; lesser wing-coverts brighter
cobalt, forming a shoulder-patch; median and greater series blackish,
externally like the back; alula, primary-coverts, and quills black,
with narrow margins of dull blue, broader on the secondaries;
tail-feathers blackish, greenish blue externally; head like the back,
the base of the forehead brighter cobalt, extending backward over the
eye and forming an eyebrow; lores black; sides of face and ear-coverts
and cheeks black, glossed with dull blue; a moustachial line of blue
feathers tipped with white; a black chin spot; throat and fore neck
orange-buff, extending down the sides of the body, but paler and
inclining to whitish below the black chin-spot; center of breast and
abdomen white, as also the under tail-coverts, with a slight tinge
of buff; lateral breast-feathers tipped with blue, like the back;
thighs white, with blackish bases; axillars and under wing-coverts
white, slightly tinged with buff; edge of wing blue. Length, 150;
culmen, 18; wing, 74; tail, 63; tarsus, 18.
"This species is closely allied to Siphia philippinensis, but is
much larger, of a more greenish blue, and is especially distinguished
by the white moustache, forming a narrow line down each side of the
throat." (Sharpe.)
"Female.--Forehead, crown, and occiput dark plumbeous-gray, washed
with olive, each feather with narrow obsolete transverse bars,
which are most pronounced on the forehead; sides of neck, mantle,
scapulars, and back warm olivaceous-brown, deepening posteriorly into
bright ferruginous-brown on the upper tail-coverts; rectrices dark
sepia-brown, the exterior webs ferruginous-brown, except on the two
central quills, which are wholly ferruginous-brown, and all showing
in certain lights close obsolete transverse bars; under surface
of the quills hair-brown; primaries dark brown, and all except the
first and second margined basally on the outer webs by a thin line of
ferruginous-brown; the secondaries and tertials also dark brown, but
increasingly margined [with] bright ferruginous-brown until the entire
outer webs are of the latter color; under wing-coverts, axillars,
and edges of wing white, tinged with buff; major wing-coverts dark
brown, with bright ferruginous-brown outer webs; the other coverts
broadly tipped with bright ferruginous-brown; a conspicuous line from
the nares over the eye and reaching nearly to the posterior angle of
the orbit, and a line fringing the lower margin of the orbit, pure
white (tinged with buff in some examples); lores black; ear-coverts
dark gray, washed with olive; cheeks the same, but rather darker
gray; sides and flanks olive-gray, washed with buff; chin white;
throat pale buff, passing into deep orange-buff on the breast, on
the sides of which some of the plumes show obsolete dusky margins;
abdomen and lower tail-coverts white; thigh-plumes dark gray, edged
with white. Length, 147; culmen, 17; wing, 73; tail, 60; tarsus, 17.
"In another female from Balabac the dimensions are rather less, but
in my original Puerto Princesa specimen they agree very closely. This
species is marked by its large bill. The culmen in the type-skin
of the male, measured from its insertion in the skull, is 17 mm.,
and it is the same in a female collected by Mr. Whitehead at Taguso
in Palawan." (Everett.)
"Abundant in Palawan and the Calamianes islands. Habits like those of
S. philippinensis. Five males average: Length, 149; wing, 75; tail,
64; culmen, 18; tarsus, 17; middle toe with claw, 18. Three females,
length, 149; wing, 70; tail, 58; culmen, 17; tarsus, 16; middle toe
with claw, 17. Iris dark brown; legs and feet nearly black often
tinged with bluish; bill black." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)
The female of this species has been variously identified as Cyornis
banyumas, Siphia elegans, and Cyornis herioti. Everett was the first
ornithologist to describe it under the name Siphia lemprieri and his
description is here quoted.