Motacilla caprata Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 12 (1766), 1, 335.
Pratincola caprata Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1879), 4, 195;
Hand-List (1903), 4, 173; Oates, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1890),
2, 59, fig. 24 (head); Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 104 (habits);
Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1905), 4, 161; McGregor and
Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 86.
Si-páo, Manila.
Bantayan (McGregor); Bohol (Everett, McGregor); Cebu (Everett,
Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Lubang (McGregor); Luzon (Jagor,
Everett, Möllendorff, Steere Exp., Schmacker, Bourns & Worcester,
Whitehead, McGregor, Bartsch); Masbate (Bourns & Worcester);
Mindoro (Everett); Negros (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester,
Celestino); Panay (Steere, Steere Exp.); Siquijor (Bourns &
Worcester, Celestino); Ticao (McGregor). Persia, India Peninsula,
Burmese provinces, Java, Borneo.
Adult male.--Most of the plumage glossy black; inner series of
secondary-coverts white, forming a conspicuous patch; rump, upper
tail-coverts, and crissum pure white; some feathers of flanks, lower
abdomen, and thighs tipped with white; extreme bases of outer rectrices
white. Bill, legs, and nails black. Length, about 130 mm. Wing, 68;
tail, 50; culmen from base, 14; bill from nostril, 9; tarsus, 20. In
winter the male has many feathers of head, back, breast, abdomen,
and sides of body fringed with buff.
Adult female.--In fresh plumage (April); upper parts ashy gray with
dark brown centers to the feathers; rump and tail-coverts rusty buff;
lower parts brown; feathers of chin edged with pale whitish buff;
crissum pale whitish buff; remainder of under parts ocherous brown,
the feathers with darker centers; feathers of wing dark brown with
lighter margins; rectrices blackish brown. In worn plumage (September)
the upper parts, except uropygium, become seal-brown; wing-feathers
similar from the wearing away of the light margins; under parts darker
than in the fresh plumage. A female measures: Wing, 64; tail, 50;
culmen from base, 13; bill from nostril, 7.5; tarsus, 20.
Young.--A young male (May) resembles the female in worn plumage,
but the under parts are richer and more mottled; chin and throat buff
with blackish edges to feathers; breast and abdomen rusty ocherous, the
feathers of breast fringed with dull black; head, neck, and back smoky
black, most of the feathers marked with small buff spots; secondaries,
alula, and secondary-coverts broadly edged with rusty ocherous; edging
of alula-feathers lighter; bases of inner greater coverts pure white.
Genus SAXICOLA Bechstein, 1802.
Bill slender; rictal bristles weak, the longest less than bill from
nostril; wing long, flat, and pointed; first primary short and slender,
less than one-third of second; tail rounded, extending very little
beyond the folded wings.