Anthus maculatus (not Motacilla maculata Gmelin) Hodgson, in Gray's
Zool. Miscl. (1844), 83; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1885),
10, 547; Hume, Nests & Eggs Ind. Bds. (1890), 2, 209; Whitehead,
Ibis (1899), 237 (habits); McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List
(1906), 101.
Anthus hodgsoni Richmond, Publ. Carnegie Inst. Wash. (1907),
no. 54, 493.
Apo (Celestino); Calayan (McGregor); Luzon (Everett,
Whitehead, McGregor, Bartsch); Mindanao (Goodfellow); Palawan
(Everett). Eastern Siberia, China, Japan, Indo-Burmese countries,
Liu Kiu Islands, and the Indian Peninsula.
Adult in fresh plumage.--Above dark olive-green; top of head streaked
with blackish brown; feathers of back with blackish shaft-lines, much
less conspicuous than in A. gustavi or A. rufulus; lower back, rump,
and tail-coverts uniform olive-green; side of forehead and supercilium
buff, forming a line which becomes white over ear-coverts; lores
blackish; subocular region and ear-coverts buff, mottled with dark
brown; chin, throat, and chest pale buff, separated from the buff jaw
by a blackish malar line; lower breast, abdomen, and crissum white;
flanks and thighs dark buff; breast, sides, and flanks marked with
large black spots, which are triangular on chest, and elongate on
sides and flanks; wing-feathers blackish, edged with olive; tips of
median and greater coverts buffy, forming two bars; rectrices blackish,
two or three outer pairs tipped with white. In summer the plumage has
become much worn and the dark markings are more conspicuous. A male
taken in Luzon in November measures: Length, 152; wing, 84; tail, 60;
culmen from base, 14; tarsus, 21; hind toe with claw, 15. A female in
worn plumage from Benguet Province, Luzon, measures: Wing, 80; tail,
57; culmen from base, 14; tarsus, 21; hind toe with claw, 17. The
diagnostic characters of this species are the olivaceous upper parts,
the large triangular spots on the breast, and the short claw of the
hind toe.