Turdus obscurus Gmelin, Syst. Nat. (1788), 1, pt. 2, 816;
Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 212 (migration); Oates and Reid,
Cat. Birds' Eggs (1905), 4, 119; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List
(1906), 84.
Merula obscura Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1891), 5, 273.
Apo (Celestino); Calayan (McGregor); Guimaras (Steere Exp.);
Luzon (Cuming, Othberg, Whitehead); Mindanao (Goodfellow); Negros
(Whitehead). Eastern Siberia, Japan, Eastern Himalayas and Malay
Peninsula; in winter to China, Borneo, and Burma.
"In the adult male the general color of the upper parts is olive-brown,
tinged with gray on the crown and nape; lores very dark brown;
ear-coverts slaty brown; eye-stripe white, extending nearly to
the nape; wings, wing-coverts, and tail brown, the outer web of
each feather olive-brown, grayer on the margins of the primaries
and primary-coverts; outside tail-feathers obscurely tipped with
white on the inner web; throat and cheeks slaty brown, shading into
olive-brown on the breast and into pale chestnut-brown on the flanks,
leaving the belly white; under tail-coverts white, with basal half
edged with brown; axillars and under wing-coverts pale slate-gray,
obscurely tipped with white; inner margin of quills pale brown. Bill
with upper mandible dark brown; under mandible pale yellow, darker
toward the tip. Wing with the third primary longest, second primary
between the fourth and fifth, bastard primary, 15 to 13 mm. Legs,
feet, and claws pale brown. Wing, 127 to 112; tail, 91 to 76; culmen,
22 to 20; tarsus, 32 to 28.
"The female differs from the male in not having the slaty tint on the
crown, nape, and sides of the head; the throat is white, obscurely
streaked with brown, and the flanks are very slightly suffused with
pale chestnut-brown. In spring the general color of the upper parts
has faded from russet-brown into a grayer brown, which becomes still
more gray during summer.
"Birds of the year do not entirely lose the marks of immaturity until
their second autumn molt; the wing-coverts and innermost secondaries
frequently retain the pale tips, though these are white rather than
ochraceous; the throat and eye-stripe of the female are much suffused
with ochraceous, and the throat of the male resembles that of the
adult female.
"Young in first plumage have most of the feathers of the upper parts
with pale ochraceous shafts, the feathers of the back have traces
of dark-brown terminal bars, and the wing-coverts and innermost
secondaries have pale ochraceous tips to the outside webs; on the
under parts the feathers of the cheeks and breast have dark-brown
tips, which become less conspicuous on the flanks; the throat and
eye-stripe are suffused with ochraceous." (Seebohm.)
A male from Apo Island, near Mindoro, measures: Wing, 126; tail, 97;
culmen from base, 22; bill from nostril, 13; tarsus, 30.
Genus GEOKICHLA "Boie" S. Müller, 1835.
Bill short and stout; bristles about bill short and weak; first primary
a little shorter than primary-coverts; third to sixth primaries with
outer webs emarginate; inner webs of quills light colored at base;
axillars bicolored, the colors reversed on the under wing-coverts; tail
short, about twice the tarsus. Under parts white, spotted with black.
Species.
a1. Head brownish chestnut; chin, throat, and chest black ... interpres
(p. 550)
a2. Head ashy gray; chin and throat white, spotted or barred with
black.
b1. Median and greater wing-coverts with white tips forming two
bars. ... cinerea (p. 551)
b2. No white spots on any of the upper wing-coverts ... mindanensis
(p. 552)