Oriolus samarensis Steere, List Birds & Mams. Steere Exped. (1890),
17; Grant, Ibis (1897), 223; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 100 (habits);
McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 106.
Leyte (Whitehead); Mindanao (Celestino); Samar (Steere Exp.,
Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead).
Adult (sexes alike).--Upper parts, ear-coverts, sides of neck,
secondary-coverts, tertials, and middle pair of rectrices rich
olive-yellow; lores, jaw, chin, throat, and chest cinereous; lower
breast, abdomen, flanks, and thighs white, boldly streaked with black;
crissum bright gamboge-yellow; primaries blackish edged with gray or
olive on the outer webs; secondaries blackish, edged with olive-yellow
on outer webs; inner webs of quills broadly edged with bright
lemon-yellow; axillars, wing-lining, and bend of wing lemon-yellow;
rectrices largely olive-yellow, blackish subterminally, each of the
inner webs with a large yellow spot at the tip; shafts black above,
yellow below. Bill dull red. A male from northern Mindanao measures:
Wing, 113; tail, 79; culmen from base, 25; bill from nostril, 17;
tarsus, 21. An unsexed specimen from Samar, wing, 101; tail, 68;
culmen from base, 20; bill from nostril, 15; tarsus, 20.
"A well-marked species sharply distinct from O. steeri, as well
as from O. assimilis, though Dr. Steere has not made the points of
difference very plain. Five males average: Length, 195; wing, 105;
tail, 72; culmen, 24; tarsus, 20.5; middle toe with claw, 22.3. A
female measures: Length, 203; wing, 104; tail, 71; culmen, 23; tarsus,
20.5; middle toe with claw, 22. Iris dull brown to light brownish red;
legs and feet dark slate-color, nails blackish; bill light to dark
reddish brown." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)