Æthopyga pulcherrima Sharpe, Nature (1876), 14, 297; Gadow,
Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1884), 9, 31.
Eudrepanis pulcherrima Sharpe,
Trans. Linn. Soc. 2d. ser. Zool. (1877), 1, 341; Shelley,
Monogr. Nectarin. pt. 3 (1877), 83, pl. 28; Grant and Whitehead,
Ibis (1898), 242 (eggs); Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 229; McGregor
and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 99.
Æthopyga dubia Tweeddale, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1878), 112.
Basilan (Steere, Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Dinagat (Everett);
Leyte (Steere Exp., Whitehead); Mindanao (Celestino); Samar
(Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead).
Male.--Forehead and crown to opposite center of eye metallic
french-blue; hind crown, sides of neck, and back olive-green; lower
back and rump lemon-yellow; a patch above ear-coverts metallic greenish
blue; lores, cheeks, and jaw dull black; under parts rich lemon-yellow
becoming much paler on lower abdomen, flanks, and crissum; a large
scarlet patch on chest partly broken up by the yellow tips of the
feathers; wing-quills blackish brown, externally edged with olive-green
and on inner webs with white; secondary-coverts black, broadly tipped
with rich metallic green; alula and primary-coverts black, narrowly
edged or tipped with metallic green; upper tail-coverts and middle
pair of rectrices rich metallic green, the other rectrices black,
edged with metallic green; lining of wing white. A male from Basilan
measures: Length, 89; wing, 45; tail, 23.5; culmen from base, 19;
bill from nostril, 15; tarsus, 14.
"Female.--Without any metallic colors; upper parts olive, inclining
to ashy brown on the crown and sides of the head; tail dark brown,
washed with olive, tipped with white; under wing-coverts and inner
edge of quills white; rest of under parts dingy yellowish. Wing, 46;
tail, 25; tarsus, 14." (Gadow.)
"Three male birds average: Length, 95; wing, 48; tail, 23; culmen,
21; tarsus, 14; middle toe with claw, 13. Two females, length, 85;
wing, 43; tail, 23; culmen, 21; tarsus, 13; middle toe with claw,
12. Iris brownish red; legs, feet, and nails black; bill black. Birds
from Basilan, however, have legs and feet brown. Food insects." (Bourns
and Worcester MS.)
Whitehead collected three slightly incubated eggs of this short-tailed
sunbird near Paranas, Samar, on July 26, 1896. They are described
as follows: "Shape ovate. Ground-color dull pink, rather thickly
mottled all over with pinkish gray, especially towards the
larger end, the markings forming a rather distinct zone round the
pole. The over-markings are small rounded spots and dots of deep
vandyke-brown. Measurements 15 mm. by 12 mm. Nest attached to the
under side of a climbing fern about 8 feet [2.4 meters] from the
ground." (Grant and Whitehead.)