452 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



{Bourns & Worcester, McGregor) ; Samar (Steere Exp., Bourns d Worcester) ; 

 Sibutu (Everett); Sibuyan (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Siquijor (Bourns 

 & Worcester, Celestino) ; Sulu (Guillemard, Bourns d Worcester) ; Tablas (Bourns 

 d Worcester); Tawi Tawi (Bourns d Worcester); Ticao (McGregor); Verde 



(McGregor) . Nicobar Islands, Malay Peninsula, Java, Borneo, Flores. Lombok, 

 Hainan, Formosa. 



Male. — General color azure-blue, brighter on head, darker on back 

 and rump and slightl}^ purplish on breast; a narrow line on forehead, 

 another on chin, and a round or oval patch on back of head, velvety 

 black; a narrow crescent of black across breast; abdomen, flanks, and 

 under tail-coverts white; thighs washed with blue; wings and tail black, 

 the edges of the feathers washed with dark blue. Iris dark; bill blue, 

 edged and tipped with black ; eyelids and- feet blue, nails black ; inside 

 of mouth pale greenish yellow. Length, about 160; wing, 65; tail, 65; 

 culmen from base, 13; bill from nostril, 10; tarsus, 15. 



Female. — Differs from the male in having the back, rump, wings, 

 and tail brown, in lacking the nuchal patch and breast crescent, and 

 in having the blue of head and throat somewhat duller and the breast 

 bluish gray. Length, about 150; wing, 67; tail, 65; bill from nostril, 

 9; tarsus, 15. 



"We gathered a large series of specimens of this common bird with 

 the purpose of determining whether more than one species occured in 

 the Philippines. It is our decided opinion, after carefully examining 

 a large series of specimens from all parts of the Archipelago, that there 

 is no gi'ound whatever for attempting to separate the birds from different 

 islands. There is a great deal of individual variation in color, but all 

 the various phases may be found in the birds of any one locality, the 

 coloring changing greatly Avith the season, as well as with age, and 

 frequently a good deal of variation occurs even among fully adult birds 

 shot at a given time. 



"If it be granted that we are dealing with but a single species, and 

 we fail to see how anyone can doubt it who will look over a good series 

 of specimens, it only remains to decide what name belongs to it. Sharpe 

 states. Catalogue of Birds (1879), 4, 276, that as the white belly is the 

 character by which the two species are distinguished, and as this is 

 shown clearly in Daubenton's plate of H. azurca, he has adopted that 

 title for the Indian bird, in spite of the fact that the plate is pro- 

 fessedly founded on the 'Goubemouches bleu des Philippines.' In other 

 words, since the bird figured shows a white belly, Doctor Sharpe thinks 

 it must have come from India and not from the Philippines. Now, 

 while in some of our Philippine birds the belly is washed with blue, 

 and in two specimens is decidedly bluish, in the majority of the speci- 

 mens it is pure white. We are in no position to go into the question 

 as to whether the Indian and Philippine birds are really distinct, not 



