Pericrocotus igneus Blyth, Jour. As. Soc. Bengal (1846), 15,
309; Sharpe, Hand-List (1901), 3, 301; McGregor and Worcester,
Hand-List (1906), 77.
Palawan (Steere, Lempriere, Whitehead, Platen, Steere Exp., Bourns
& Worcester, Celestino, White). Western China, Malay Peninsula,
southern Tenasserim, Sumatra, Borneo.
Adult male.--Entire head, chin, throat, and upper back glossy
blue-black; lower back, rump, tail-coverts, and under parts bright
pompeian-orange or fiery red; base of each feather white with a wash
of pale yellow between the white base and red tip; thighs black; wings
black; primaries, except four outermost, and secondaries crossed by a
diagonal band of bright orange-red; on inner webs the band is yellow;
inner greater coverts tipped with orange-red and forming part of the
wing-patch; four middle rectrices glossy black, the other rectrices
black with apical one-third to one-half red. Iris dark brown; bill
and feet black. Length, 162; wing, 77; tail, 76; culmen from base,
13; bill from nostril, 9; tarsus, 16.
"Adult female.--General color above dull ashy gray, the lower back,
rump, and upper tail-coverts fine vermilion; four median tail-feathers
black, the remainder vermilion with black bases, gradually increasing
in extent toward the inner ones; quills black, with a broad bar of
orange near the base of the quills, extending along the outer web of
some of the inner primaries; ear-coverts gray; lores, feathers round
the eye, cheeks, and under surface of body bright yellow, inclining
to orange on the flanks and under tail-coverts; thighs blackish;
under wing-coverts and edge of wing yellow. Length, 140; culmen, 13;
wing, 70; tail, 70; tarsus, 15." (Sharpe.)
"Two males from Palawan average, 154 in length; wing, 72; tail, 74;
culmen, 16; tarsus, 16; middle toe with claw, 14. Iris dark; bill,
legs, feet, and nails black. Breeding in Palawan in December. Usually
keeps to the tops of high trees in the forest but occasionally comes
out into the mangrove swamps." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)