Sturnus cineraceus Temminck, Pl. Col. (1827), 2, pl. 556.
Poliopsar cineraceus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1890), 13,
41 and addenda, 665.
Spodiopsar cineraceus Oates, Fauna Brit. Ind. Birds (1889), 1,
524; Mearns, Phil. Jour. Sci. (1907), 2, sec. A, 353.
Luzon (Mearns). Eastern Siberia, Japan, China, Formosa, Upper
Burma.
"Coloration.--Forehead, crown, nape, and sides of neck black, the
forehead streaked with white; lores, ear-coverts, and round the eye
white, streaked with black; chin and throat dark ashy brown with
paler and indistinct shaft-streaks; breast ashy, slightly paler than
throat; sides of the body and thighs rufous ashy; abdomen and under
tail-coverts white; back, scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts
drab-brown with a broad white bar across the rump; tail drab-brown
with broad white tips to all the inner webs of the feathers except
the middle pair; wing-coverts and tertials bronzy brown; remainder of
wing blackish, the primaries narrowly, the secondaries more broadly,
margined with white on the outer webs; under wing-coverts and axillars
white, a few feathers of the former partially margined with brown.
"The youngest bird I have seen has the whole plumage russet-brown,
the inner webs of the tail-feathers tipped with white, the quills of
the wing edged with paler brown; the ear-coverts whitish; the chin
nearly pure white.
"Between this young bird and the adult above described there is every
possible gradation of plumage. The nestling is probably streaked below.
"'Iris brown surrounded by white; bill orange; the tip horny; the base
of the lower mandible and the angle of the mantle brownish green;
legs yellow.' (David and Oustalet.) Length, about 229; tail, 71;
wing, 132; tarsus, 32; bill from gape, 33." (Oates.)
The gray starling is known as a member of the Philippine ornis from
a single specimen collected in northern Luzon by Doctor Mearns. This
specimen has the chin, throat, and crest mottled with white and there
is much white on the forehead and sides of head.
Genus LAMPROCORAX Bonaparte, 1853.
Bill stout, strongly compressed except toward base; culmen strongly
curved throughout; gonys straight; feathers on nasal membrane short
and pile-like; feathers of head, face, and throat lanceolate; tail
moderate in length; rectrices narrow and graduated, their tips rounded;
plumage entirely glossy black.
Species.
a1. Larger; wing, 105 mm.; tail, 75. ... panayensis (p. 715)
a2. Smaller; wing, 95 mm.; tail, 59. ... todayensis (p. 716)