Muscicapa tessacourbe Scopoli, Del. Flor. et Faun. Insubr. (1786),
2, 95 (based on Sonnerat's figure).
Muscicapa luzoniensis Gmelin, Syst. Nat. (1788), 1, pt. 2, 942
(same basis as Scopoli's name).
Micropus nehrkorni Blasius, Jour. für Orn. (1890), 147.
Penthornis luzoniensis Sharpe, Hand-List (1903), 4, 333; McGregor
and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 94.
Mindanao (Sonnerat?, Platen).
Male.--Similar to Penthornis semilarvatus, but with a broad white
band across the inner primaries and outer secondaries near their
bases. "Length, 140; wing, 78.5; tail, 53; culmen, 12.5; tarsus,
15." (Blasius.)
Muscicapa tessacourbe Scopoli and M. luzoniensis Gmelin were both
based upon Sonnerat's plate. The species was unrecognized until Platen
collected a male in Mindanao. Blasius described this specimen under
the name Micropus nehrkorni, suggesting the probability that it was
the same as Muscicapa luzoniensis. Sonnerat's figure does not look
much like a Penthornis.
Family SITTIDÆ.
Bill slender and pointed, about as long as head; neither notched
nor toothed; culmen but very slightly curved; nostrils oval, nearly
hidden by the antrorse frontal plumes; shafts of the latter hair-like
and extending beyond the nostrils; rictal bristles very small; wing
long, pointed and somewhat curved; first primary equal to about
one-third of second; fourth and fifth nearly equal and longest;
second between fifth and sixth in length; tail square, very short,
scarcely more than one-half the wing; tarsus distinctly scutellate,
equal to culmen from base; three anterior toes with their basal joints
united; outer toe much longer than inner toe; hind toe with claw much
longer than tarsus and nearly equal to middle toe with claw.
Genus CALLISITTA Bonaparte, 1850.
Upper parts of body blue, forehead black; under parts, buff or
cinnamon, more or less washed with lilac.
Species.
a1. Lores entirely black; mantle uniform blue like the
back. ... palawana (p. 609)
a2. Lores not entirely black, the lower part white or buff; mantle
somewhat lighter than the rest of the back.
b1. Breast and abdomen lighter, with little or no lilac wash.
c1. Larger; under parts much darker; breast
vinaceous-cinnamon. ... oenochlamys (p. 610)
c2. Smaller; under parts much lighter; breast
cream-buff. ... mesoleuca (p. 610)
b2. Breast and abdomen darker, and heavily washed with
lilac. ... lilacea (p. 611)