Turdus luzoniensis Kittlitz, Kupf. der Vögel (1832), 7, pl. 11,
fig. 2.
Cittocincla luzoniensis Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1883), 7,
91; Hand-List (1903), 4, 162; Grant, Ibis (1895), 447; (1896),
116; Grant and Whitehead, Ibis (1898), 239, pl. 6, fig. 4 (egg);
Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 218 (habits, eggs); Oates and Reid,
Cat. Birds' Eggs (1905), 4, 156, pl. 7, fig. 15; McGregor and
Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 86.
Catanduanes (Whitehead); Luzon (Kittlitz, Möllendorff, Steere Exp.,
Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead, McGregor); Marinduque (Steere Exp.);
Polillo (McGregor).
Male.--Head, neck, back, chin, and throat black, the upper parts with
a slight blue gloss; on each side of head from above lores to nape
a broad superciliary band of white, connected across forehead by a
narrow white band; rump and tail-coverts orange-chestnut; breast,
abdomen, and crissum white; flanks washed with orange-buff; feathers
of thighs brown with white tips; wings black; some of the primaries
narrowly edged with white, some of the greater coverts broadly tipped
with white; axillars and wing-lining white; rectrices black, the four
outer pairs broadly tipped with white. Iris and bill black; feet and
nails light flesh-color. Length, about 180 mm. A male from Bataan
Province, Luzon, measures: Wing, 82; tail, 82; culmen from base, 18;
bill from nostril, 12; tarsus, 26; middle toe with claw, 23.
Adult female.--"Top of the head, mantle, and upper back olive-brown;
lores, sides of the head and neck, and the chest dull gray, the
chin and middle of throat being somewhat paler, almost whitish;
wings washed and edged on the outer web with brown; the rest of the
plumage is very similar to that of the male. Length, 183; wing, 76;
tail, 81; tarsus, 27.
"An immature female is similar to the above, but the middle of the
chin and throat is mostly white, in somewhat marked contrast to the
gray chest and sides of the head and neck." (Grant.)
Two eggs of the Luzon shama collected at Cape Engaño, Luzon, on April
27, 1895, are thus described:
"Shape short ovate. Ground-color pale sea-green, profusely spotted
and blotched all over, especially toward the larger end, with reddish
brown and with some indistinct lilac under-markings. Measurements
21 mm. by 16 mm." Two eggs collected in the same locality on May
26, are "rather more oval in shape than the above and more richly
marked. Measurements 23 mm. by 16 mm.
"One nest was placed in the hollowed-out stem of a dead palm broken
off by the wind, the other in a hollow stump close to the ground;
in both cases the nest was composed of moss and dry grass." (Grant
and Whitehead.)
"In Marinduque we shot this species about bamboo clumps in the
open. In Luzon we invariably found it in the deep woods. A male from
Luzon measures as follows: Wing, 75; tail, 79; culmen, 18; tarsus,
25; middle toe with claw, 22. Bill black; legs, feet, and nails
flesh-color." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)