Dendrophila lilacea Whitehead, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1897), 6,
49; Ibis (1899), 228; Sharpe, Hand-List (1903), 4, 351; Grant,
Ibis (1906), 474.
Callisitta lilacea McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 94.
Basilan (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Leyte
(Whitehead); Mindanao (Bourns & Worcester, Goodfellow); Samar
(Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead).
Adult male.--Spot on lower part of lores buff; hind neck, mantle, and
sides of neck vinaceous-buff, washed with lilac; throat vinaceous-buff
deepening to vinaceous-cinnamon on chest, and on the rest of under
parts which are heavily washed with lilac. A male from Basilan
measures: Length, 120; wing, 73; tail, 39; culmen from base, 15;
bill from nostril, 10; tarsus, 16.
Adult female.--Similar to the male, but lacking the black line over
eye to nape. A female from Basilan measures: Wing, 70; tail, 40;
culmen from base, 16; bill from nostril, 10; tarsus, 15.
Family CERTHIIDÆ.
Bill gently curved, moderate in length, slender, decidedly compressed
beyond nostril, and with an obsolete notch in cutting edge near
tip; culmen with a distinct ridge; nostril-opening linear, exposed,
and overhung by an operculum; rictal bristles few and very short; no
frontal bristles; a number of long retrorse hairs springing from among
the feathers of forehead; wing moderate in length, flat, and somewhat
pointed; first primary slender and less than one-third of second,
the latter nearly equal to third, fourth, and fifth which are subequal
and longest; tail square, little more than one-half of wing; divisions
between tarsal scutes obsolete; tarsus, longer than bill from nostril,
and equal to, or shorter than, middle toe with claw. The characters
detailed above are taken from Rhabdornis, a genus not typical of the
family, but the only Philippine representative of the Certhiidæ.
Genus RHABDORNIS Reichenbach, 1853.
Characters the same as those given for the Family. Upper parts brown
or gray, and black, streaked with white; under parts white, sides
streaked with brown or black.
Species.
a1. Head and nape heavily streaked with white.
b1. Bill longer, about 16 mm. from nostril; upper parts
grayer. ... mystacalis (p. 612)
b2. Bill shorter, about 14 mm. from nostril; upper parts
browner. ... minor (p. 612)
a2. Head and nape uniform dull brown or else dark gray. ... inornatus
(p. 613)