Pyrrhula steerei Mearns, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. (1909), 36, 445.
Mindanao (Mearns).
"Characters.--Similar to Pyrrhula leucogenys Grant, from the mountains
of Lepanto in northern Luzon. The Mindanao bird differs in being
smaller, with a differently colored, much smaller bill, more brownish
coloration, and a tendency to whitening on the middle of the abdomen,
which the Luzon bird lacks.
"Adult male (type, killed July 9).--Crown and front of head all round,
to just behind eye, black; crown glossed with purplish blue; lores,
malar region, chin, and upper throat dead black; auriculars white;
scapulars and interscapular region deep broccoli-brown; rump white;
rectrices, upper tail-coverts, primaries, secondaries, tertials,
primary-coverts, and base of greater wing-coverts, glossy bluish
black; lesser wing-coverts dark broccoli-brown; terminal two-fifths
of greater wing-coverts broccoli-brown, paler terminally; outer
web of innermost secondary edged externally with orange-vermilion;
under parts broccoli-brown, shading to whitish on middle of belly
and to tawny ochraceous on crissum; axillars pure white; under
wing-coverts brown at base, broadly white terminally; underside of
shafts of primary-quills white nearly to the tips. Fresh specimens,
including the type, were noted in the field as having the iris dark
brown; bill plumbeous-black, perceptibly horn-color at extreme base;
feet brownish flesh-color, with underside of toes yellowish; claws
brown. In the dry skins the bills are uniformly plumbeous-black.
"Adult female * * *. Exactly like the male, except that the outer web
of the innermost secondary is edged externally with yellowish orange
instead of orange-vermilion." (Mearns.)
Genus FRINGILLA Linnæus, 1758.
Bill moderately stout; culmen flat, without a ridge, and straight
except at its extreme tip; wings long, extending beyond the toes and
nearly to the tip of the slightly forked tail; colors black, white,
and orange-buff.