Goodfellowia miranda Hartert, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1903),
11; Novit. Zool. (1906), 13, 758, pl. 2, fig. 2; McGregor and
Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 108.
Tu-ca-ling', Bagobo of Mount Apo.
Mindanao (Goodfellow, Mearns).
Adult (sexes alike).--Black, glossed with dark green; wings and
tail blackish brown with little or no gloss; wing-lining and
a large patch on lower back and rump white. "Iris dark brown,
bare skin round eye yellow; bill yellow, shading into greenish
yellow at the base; toes dirty olive or blackish olive; legs
olive-yellow." (Goodfellow.) Length, about 300 mm. A male measures:
Wing, 116; tail, 156; culmen from base, 22; tarsus, 25; crest, 31;
difference between longest and shortest rectrices, 90. A female,
wing, 114; tail, 162; culmen from base, 25; tarsus, 30; crest, 25;
difference between longest and shortest rectrices, 92.
This peculiar starling is confined to the highlands of Mindanao.
Genus EULABES Cuvier, 1817.
Bill shorter than head and very stout; culmen strongly curved; nasal
feathers antrorse, but short and not concealing the nostrils; feathers
on head very short, those of lores and a broad band of feathers on
each side of crown and occiput pile-like; a bare space below each
eye; a bare space behind each eye ending in a fleshy flap, or wattle,
on nape; tail square, less than one-half the wing and not extending
beyond the very stout legs and feet; plumage black, glossed with blue
and purple; a white bar on the wing.