Oriolus xanthonotus Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soc. (1821), 13, 152;
Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1877), 3, 213; Ibis (1888), 200;
McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 107.
Calamianes (Worcester); Palawan (Everett, Whitehead, Steere Exp.,
Bourns & Worcester, Celestino, White). Malacca, Java, Sumatra,
Borneo.
Adult male.--Entire head, neck, chin, throat, and chest black; back,
rump, tail-coverts, and crissum rich lemon-yellow; feathers of back
with obscure dusky shaft-lines; basal feathers of crissum with mesial
streaks of olive-green; lower breast, abdomen, sides, and flanks white
with wide, black, mesial streaks; sides and flanks washed with yellow;
breast also washed with yellow in some specimens; feathers of thighs
black, tipped with light yellow; wings black; primaries edged with
light gray; secondaries, tertials, and greater coverts narrowly edged
with bright yellow; median coverts more widely edged with yellow;
lesser coverts entirely yellow; inner webs of quills edged with pale
yellow; under wing-coverts black, edged with yellow; axillars yellow;
rectrices black, slightly fringed with yellow basally, widely tipped
with yellow on inner webs, about 25 mm. on outermost pair and reduced
to a mere trace on the middle pair; shafts of rectrices black above,
brown below. A male measures: Wing, 111; tail, 75; culmen from base,
23; bill from nostril, 16; tarsus, 20.
Female.--Head, neck, sides of neck and ear-coverts black, streaked with
olive-green; back yellow, but not so bright as in the male; jaw, chin,
throat, and chest cinereous with whitish streaks; breast and abdomen
like the male, but less heavily streaked with black; primaries more
widely edged with pale gray than in the male; secondaries and tertials
broadly edged with olive-green; primary-coverts and alula edged with
gray; exposed edges of all the secondary-coverts olive-green; rectrices
heavily washed with olive-green on outer webs; both webs of central
pair nearly all olive-green; shafts yellow below. A female measures:
Wing, 109; tail, 76; culmen from base, 23; bill from nostril, 16.5;
tarsus, 21.
"Eight males average: Length, 197; wing, 114; tail, 77; culmen, 25;
tarsus, 20.5; middle toe with claw, 22.3. Five females, length, 192;
wing, 106; tail, 73; culmen, 23; tarsus, 20.5; middle toe with claw,
21.5. Iris deep red; legs and feet slaty blue, nails blackish; bill
light reddish brown." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)
Family DICRURIDÆ.
Bill strong, culmen ridged and strongly curved; cutting edge curved
with a notch near the tip; nostrils hidden by many soft, antrorse,
frontal plumes, the anterior of which have long bristle-like shafts;
rictal bristles long and stiff; wing long; first primary more than
one-half the second, the latter much less than third; fourth and fifth
practically equal and longest; tail long to very long, slightly to
deeply forked; rectrices ten, the two outer pairs curved outward near
the tips. Legs and feet stout; tarsus slightly longer than bill from
nostril; bill, legs, and nails black in all the species.
Genera.
a1. Plumage mostly, or entirely, black; upper parts glossed with
green or blue.
b1. Tips of outermost rectrices not curved upward; tail nearly
square. ... Dicrurus (p. 702)
b2. Tips of outermost rectrices curved upward, the webs more or less
rotated about the shaft; tail decidedly forked ... Chibia (p. 705)
a2. Plumage almost entirely gray and cinereous, with neither blue
nor green gloss; tail deeply forked ... Bhuchanga (p. 708)
Genus DICRURUS Vieillot, 1816.
Wing much longer than tail; tail slightly forked; rectrices broad,
the outermost with very little if any upward curve at tip. Plumage
mostly, or entirely, black, glossed with blue or green.
Species.
a1. Lower breast, abdomen, and crissum black, glossed with green
or blue.
b1. Back strongly glossed with green ... balicassius (p. 703)
b2. Back velvety black with little or no gloss.
c1. Smaller; wing, 130 to 135 mm.; tail, 112 to 115 ... striatus
(p.704)
c2. Larger; wing, 145 to 155 mm.; tail, 133 to 136 ... suluensis
(p. 704)
a2. Lower breast, abdomen, and crissum white ... mirabilis (p. 705)