Eulabes palawanensis Sharpe, Ibis (1888), 202; McGregor and
Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 109.
Mainatus palawanensis Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1890),
13, 104.
Balabac (Everett); Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester); Palawan
(Steere, Everett, Lempriere, Whitehead, Platen, Steere Exp.,
Bourns & Worcester, Celestino, White).
Adult (sexes alike).--Black, most of the plumage with a slight green
gloss, but the gloss slightly bluish on throat, breast, and hind-neck,
purplish on mantle; second to seventh primaries with a wide white band,
but on the second confined to the inner web and sometimes indicated
by a small white spot on the outer web of the eighth. A male from
Palawan measures: Wing, 162; tail, 75; culmen from base, 30; bill
from nostril, 19; tarsus, 36. A female from the same locality, wing,
168; tail, 74; culmen from base, 32; bill from nostril, 21; tarsus, 36.
"This wattled myna is common in Palawan and extremely abundant in
the Calamianes Islands. It is a very noisy bird, and some of its
cries are astonishingly human. Iris very dark brown; legs and feet
bright yellow; nails yellow at base, white at tip; bill orange-red,
yellow at tip; bare flesh of head bright yellow. Five males from
the Calamianes average: Length, 281; wing, 106; tail, 77; tarsus,
34; middle toe with claw, 36. Four females from the same locality,
length, 273; tail, 73; culmen, 30; tarsus, 33; middle toe with claw,
33." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)
Family CORVIDÆ.
Bill large and compressed, longer than head; culmen strongly curved;
gonys straight; nostrils completely hidden by stiff antrorse frontal
feathers, the longest of which equal nearly one-half the length of
bill from base; first primary much shorter than second, but more than
one-half the length of wing; second primary much shorter than third,
fourth longest, third and fifth nearly equal; rectrices broad; tail
slightly or much rounded; feet and tarsi strong, the latter less
than culmen from base. Plumage entirely black, glossed with purple
and green; sexes alike.
Genera.
a1. Tail much rounded; first primary about equal to the outer
secondaries. ... Corone (p. 722)
a2. Tail very slightly rounded, the rectrices subequal; first primary
shorter than the outer secondaries. ... Corvus (p. 723)
Genus CORONE Kaup, 1829.
First primary about equal in length to the outer secondaries, the
latter shorter than some of the more interior ones; tail much rounded
and about as long as the longest secondaries.