Emberiza sulphurata Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves
(1850), 100, pl. 60; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1888), 12,
519; Grant, Ibis (1894), 517; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 240.
Emberiza sulfurata McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 104.
Calayan (McGregor); Luzon (Whitehead, McGregor, Porter). Japan,
northern and central China; Formosa in winter.
Male (Calayan Island, November, 1903).--Top and sides of head and neck
dusky olive-green; eyelids white; lores, subocular region, and malar
stripe dusky; mantle dusky olive-green, heavily striped with black
and somewhat washed with cinnamon; lower back and rump nearly uniform
olive-gray; tail-coverts dark umber with olivaceous edges; under parts
sulphur-yellow, brightest on chin, dusky across throat which is washed
with buff, sides of breast washed with olive; abdomen and crissum pale
canary-yellow; sides of body and flanks streaked with blackish brown;
wing-feathers dark brown; lesser coverts olive; median and greater
coverts, tertials, and some of the inner secondaries broadly edged
and tipped with cinnamon-rufous or dull chestnut; remaining quills
more narrowly edged with lighter cinnamon, inner webs of quills edged
with drab-gray; rectrices blackish, the middle pair at least edged
with olive-brown; outermost pair nearly all white, but with an oblique
blackish mark near base of inner web and a small dusky mark near tip;
next pair black with a long white mark near shaft. Upper mandible
dusky; lower mandible bluish; legs and nails flesh-color. Length,
152; wing, 71; tail, 60; culmen from base, 10; tarsus, 19.
Female.--The winter plumage of the female is very similar to that
of the male. A female from Calayan measures, wing, 65; tail, 54;
culmen from base, 9.5; tarsus, 19.
"Adult male in breeding plumage.--General color greenish gray, washed
with pale yellow; the head and mantle paler and more sulphur-yellow,
the latter with broad mesial streaks of black; the scapulars like the
mantle; the rump and lower back uniform and more distinctly ashy gray;
upper tail-coverts ashy with yellowish edges; lesser wing-coverts ashy
with a yellowish tinge; median and greater series blackish, edged with
ashy and tipped with yellowish white, the greater coverts slightly
rufescent on the outer margins; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and
quills blackish, edged with ashy olive, the secondaries externally
rufescent, the innermost with whitish margins, so as to resemble
the inner greater coverts; center tail-feathers light brown, the
others blackish, the outer one for the most part white, excepting
a longitudinal mark along the end of the outer web and an oblique
basal mark on the inner web; penultimate feather with the white much
reduced and forming a large wedge-shaped mark on the inner web; the
third feather with only a small white mark near the end of the inner
web; ear-coverts greenish gray like the hind-neck; lores, feathers in
front of the eye, and a spot at base of chin dusky blackish; feathers
below the eye, cheeks, and under surface of body sulphur-yellow,
paler on the lower breast and abdomen, and still lighter on the under
tail-coverts, which are whitish tinged with yellow; sides of breast
and flanks ashy olive, the latter streaked with black; axillars and
under wing-coverts white, washed with pale yellow; quills ashy below,
whitish along the edge of the inner web. Length, 133; culmen, 10;
wing, 72; tail, 57; tarsus, 18.
"Considerable difference exists in the full-plumaged males with regard
to the amount and intensity of the black stripes on the back. In
winter the adult male appears to be always more broadly streaked
with black on the back, the black centers becoming attenuated during
the breeding season; the mantle is also washed with rufous like the
inner secondaries.
"The adult female in breeding plumage differs but little from the
male, being duller in color and rather browner on the mantle, which
is very broadly streaked with black; it is further distinguished by
the absence of the black lores and chin spot. Length, 120; culmen,
11.4; wing, 70; tail, 53; tarsus, 18.
"Young birds in winter plumage.--Only differ from the plumage of the
adult female in being rather more olive-brown, with the rufescent
edges to the feathers of the mantle and inner secondaries broad and
strongly pronounced; lower back and rump uniform ashy olive; the under
surface of the body is clear yellow, with a tinge of saffron-color
on the throat and chest." (Sharpe.)
The Japanese yellow bunting is a somewhat abundant but inconspicuous
migrant in the Philippine Islands. It was found in Calayan Island
in November and in Tarlac Province, Luzon, in the month of March. It
has also been taken in the vicinity of Manila.
Family PLOCEIDÆ.
Bill short and very stout, both deep and broad; culmen flat and
slightly curved; outline of bill, viewed from above, kite-shaped;
nostrils small and round, pierced near the frontal feathers and
situated nearer to the culmen than to the cutting edges; primaries ten.
Subfamily VIDUINÆ.
First primary narrow and pointed, shorter than primary-coverts. All
the Philippine members of this subfamily are of small size and
social habits.
Genera.
a1. Forehead not blue; sides of breast not green.
b1. Larger; width of bill at nostril little more than one-half the
culmen from base; tail slightly rounded ... Padda (p. 687)
b2. Smaller; width of bill at nostril about two-thirds of culmen
from base; tail wedge-shaped, the central pair of rectrices pointed.
c1. Tips of central rectrices more acute ... Munia (p. 688)
c2. Tips of central rectrices pointed but less acute ... Uroloncha
(p. 691)
a2. Forehead blue; sides of breast green ... Reichenowia (p. 692)
Genus PADDA Reichenbach, 1850.
Bill large, length of culmen about twice the width of upper mandible;
tail nearly square; rectrices but slightly, if at all, pointed; legs
and feet stout. Head and chin black; a large white patch covering
face and ear-coverts; young with under parts buff and the head without
the black and white markings.