Cyanomyas helenæ Steere, List Birds and Mams. Steere Exped. (1890),
16.
Cyanomyias helenæ Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 106; Sharpe, Hand-List
(1901), 3, 249; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 73.
Camiguinia personata McGregor, Phil. Jour. Sci. (1907), 2,
sec. A, 346.
Camiguin N. (McGregor); Mindanao (Celestino); Samar (Steere Exp.,
Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead.)
Adult male.--General color light azure-blue; rump and upper
tail-coverts lighter; breast darker; frontal line, chin, lores,
and a narrow circumocular line velvety black, forming a mask which
is narrowly bordered behind with bright silvery cobalt-blue, widest
behind forehead and chin; middle of lower breast, abdomen, under
tail-coverts, wing-lining, and axillars white; wings and tail black,
the exposed edges of feathers dark azure-blue, except first and second
primaries; two outermost pairs of rectrices narrowly tipped with
white in old birds only. Iris brown; the narrow eyelids light blue;
bill blue, except edges and tip which are black; legs and feet blue;
nails blackish. Length, 154; wing, 67.5; tail, 67; culmen from base,
15; bill from nostril, 9; tarsus, 16. In the slightly immature, but
fully feathered, male the crest is less developed, the feathers of
the crown are less scale-like, and the upper parts are darker blue
than in the fully adult male.
Adult female.--General color dull verditer-blue; head, neck, and
sides of head brighter; forehead dull cobalt; chin whitish, bordered
by dull cobalt; throat, breast, and sides grayish, washed with dull
azure-blue, shafts white; abdomen, flanks, under tail-coverts, and
middle of lower breast white; wings and tail blackish brown, edged
with dull verditer-blue. Wing, 64; tail, 64; culmen from base, 14;
bill from nostril, 9; tarsus, 17.
Young in first plumage.--Above smoky gray; below white; a dusky
band across fore breast; wings and tail blackish brown; primaries
and secondaries edged with verditer; outer webs of rectrices washed
with verditer.
"Rare in Samar. Always found in company with other flycatchers. Four
males average: Length, 137; wing, 63; tail, 62; culmen, 13; tarsus,
14; middle toe with claw, 13. A female, length, 130; wing, 59; tail,
55; culmen, 13; tarsus, 14; middle toe with claw, 13. Iris nearly
black; legs and feet slaty blue; nails usually black, in one case
bluish slate; bill blue, with black tip; eye-wattles blue. Breeding
in August." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)
The specimens from Camiguin Island, north of Luzon, on which was based
Camiguinia personata, are slightly larger than specimens from Mindanao
and the latter are probably Cyanomyias helenæ of Steere. There appears
to be no ground for retaining C. personata.
Genus CYANOMYIAS Sharpe, 1879.
Bill slightly compressed near tip, depth at nostril two-thirds
of width, outline sightly concave toward the tip; rictal bristles
conspicuous, the longest more than bill from nostril; wing and tail
about equal, wing formula as in Hypothymis; tarsus one and one-half
times the bill from nostril; feathers of head stiffish, decomposed
basally and conspicuously antrorse on lores; feathers of occipital
crest long and narrow.