Muscicapa occipitalis Vigors, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1831), 97.
Hypothymis occipitalis Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1879), 4,
274; Hand-List (1901), 3, 248; Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds' Eggs
(1903), 3, 273; McGregor, Bur. Govt. Labs. Manila (1905), 34,
18, pl. 13 (nest); McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 73.
Hypothymis azurea Grant and Whitehead, Ibis (1898), 237 (eggs);
Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 106.
Pi-pit a-zul, Manila.
Bantayan (McGregor); Banton (Celestino); Basilan (Steere, Everett,
Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Bohol (Steere Exp., McGregor);
Bongao (Everett); Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester); Caluya (Porter);
Cebu (Everett, Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Guimaras (Meyer,
Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Leyte (Steere Exp.); Lubang
(McGregor); Luzon (Everett, Steere Exp., Möllendorff, Bourns &
Worcester, Whitehead, McGregor); Maestre de Campo (McGregor &
Worcester); Malanipa (Murray); Marinduque (Steere Exp.); Masbate
(Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Mindanao (Everett, Steere Exp.,
Bourns & Worcester, Goodfellow, Celestino); Mindoro (Steere Exp.,
Schmacker, Bourns & Worcester, Everett, Whitehead, McGregor);
Negros (Layard, Everett, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Keay);
Palawan (Whitehead, Platen, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester,
White); Panay (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Romblon (Bourns
& Worcester, McGregor); Samar (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester);
Sibutu (Everett); Sibuyan (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Siquijor
(Bourns & Worcester, Celestino); Sulu (Guillemard, Bourns &
Worcester); Tablas (Bourns & Worcester); Tawi Tawi (Bourns &
Worcester); Ticao (McGregor); Verde (McGregor). Nicobar Islands,
Malay Peninsula, Java, Borneo, Flores, Lombok, Hainan, Formosa.
Male.--General color azure-blue, brighter on head, darker on back
and rump and slightly purplish on breast; a narrow line on forehead,
another on chin, and a round or oval patch on back of head, velvety
black; a narrow crescent of black across breast; abdomen, flanks,
and under tail-coverts white; thighs washed with blue; wings and tail
black, the edges of the feathers washed with dark blue. Iris dark;
bill blue, edged and tipped with black; eyelids and feet blue, nails
black; inside of mouth pale greenish yellow. Length, about 160; wing,
65; tail, 65; culmen from base, 13; bill from nostril, 10; tarsus, 15.
Female.--Differs from the male in having the back, rump, wings,
and tail brown, in lacking the nuchal patch and breast crescent, and
in having the blue of head and throat somewhat duller and the breast
bluish gray. Length, about 150; wing, 67; tail, 65; bill from nostril,
9; tarsus, 15.
"We gathered a large series of specimens of this common bird with
the purpose of determining whether more than one species occurred in
the Philippines. It is our decided opinion, after carefully examining
a large series of specimens from all parts of the Archipelago, that
there is no ground whatever for attempting to separate the birds from
different islands. There is a great deal of individual variation
in color, but all the various phases may be found in the birds of
any one locality, the coloring changing greatly with the season,
as well as with age, and frequently a good deal of variation occurs
even among fully adult birds shot at a given time.
"If it be granted that we are dealing with but a single species,
and we fail to see how anyone can doubt it who will look over a good
series of specimens, it only remains to decide what name belongs to
it. Sharpe states, Catalogue of Birds (1879), 4, 276, that as the white
belly is the character by which the two species are distinguished,
and as this is shown clearly in Daubenton's plate of H. azurea,
he has adopted that title for the Indian bird, in spite of the fact
that the plate is professedly founded on the 'Goubemouches bleu des
Philippines.' In other words, since the bird figured shows a white
belly, Doctor Sharpe thinks it must have come from India and not from
the Philippines. Now, while in some of our Philippine birds the belly
is washed with blue, and in two specimens is decidedly bluish, in the
majority of the specimens it is pure white. We are in no position to
go into the question as to whether the Indian and Philippine birds
are really distinct, not having the necessary material from India for
comparison, but there is most certainly no reason for thinking that
the subject of Daubenton's plate did not come from the Philippines
because it has a white belly. We therefore retain his title for the
Philippine bird. It is one of the commonest birds in the islands.
"Ten males average: Length, 156; wing, 69; tail, 71; culmen, 15;
tarsus, 15; middle toe with claw, 14. Five females, length, 147; wing,
67; tail, 67; culmen, 14; tarsus, 15; middle toe with claw, 14. Bill
blue in male, but often black in female; legs and feet bluish, nails
black." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)
A nest of the black-naped flycatcher, containing three eggs, was found
in Mindoro in April, it was composed of green moss and soft bits of
dry bamboo leaves, and lined with fine blackish fibers. The outside
was decorated with cotton-like substance from one of the fulgorid
insects. The eggs were white, marked with dots of reddish brown.
A nest and two eggs found by Whitehead near Cape Engaño, Luzon,
on May 24, 1895, are described as follows:
"Shape rounded ovate. Ground-color pure white, thickly speckled,
especially round the larger end, with small spots and dots of
brown-lake and with a few pale lilac under-markings. In general
character these eggs resemble those of the tits (Paridæ). Measurements
17 mm. by 14 mm.
"Nest cup-shaped, generally placed in a forked branch among the
lower growth in old forests. The structure is made of moss firmly
bound together with white spider's-web and lined with fine brown
fibers." (Grant and Whitehead.)
The black-naped flycatcher is one of the commonest of Philippine
birds and is found wherever there are thickets or forest. It is more
or less solitary in habits.
Genus CAMIGUINIA McGregor, 1907.
Bill moderately flattened as in Cyanomyias; culmen less than tarsus and
equal to middle toe with claw; rictal bristles longer than bill from
nostril; first primary little more than one-half of second, the latter
much less than third; fifth longest and slightly longer than fourth
and sixth; tail about equal to wing and slightly graduated; feathers
of chin, lores, and forehead short, soft, and pile-like; feathers of
crown more or less scale-like; occipital crest soft and full.
This genus is intermediate between Cyanomyias and Hypothymis; from
the former it differs in lacking the greatly lengthened crest and the
antrorse loral plumes, and from the latter it differs in having the
feathers of crown and crest scale-like, instead of soft and velvety.