544 MANUAL OP PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



525. PLANESTICUS THOMASSONI (Seebolim). 

 LUZON BLACK THRUSH. 



Merula thomassoni Seebohm, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1894), 3, 41; Geant, 

 Ibis (1894), 508; (1895), 445; Siiarpe, Hand-List (1903), 4, 120; 

 McGregor and Worcester, Hand-Lst (1906), 83. 



Turdus thomassoni Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 212. 



Bul-it, Benguet. 



Luzon (Whitehead, McGregor, M earns). 



Adult. — Entire head, neck all round, chin, throat, and chest light 

 smoky brown, darker on forehead and crown; remainder of plumage 

 black; some of the feathers at sides of abdomen tipped with white; 

 under tail-coverts with white shaft-streaks and narrow rusty brown tips. 

 Bill, legs, and nails yellow. Length of a male, plumage somewhat worn, 

 240; wing, 116; tail, 92; culmen from base, 23; bill from nostril, 14; 

 tarsus, 31. A female, wing, 118; tail, 93; culmen from base, 24; bill 

 from nostril, 15 ; tarsus, 33. Even in adult birds there is some variation 

 in the amount of white on the under tail-coverts, and rusty brown fringes 

 on the feathers of the abdomen seem to indicate immaturity. A young 

 male has the head and neck black instead of chocolate-brown and the 

 feathers of lower breast and abdomen are liberally marked with rusty 

 brown, this coloring the shafts of some feathers. 



526. PLANESTICUS MAYONENSIS (Mearns). 

 MAYON BLACK THRUSH. 

 Merula mayonensis Mearns, Phil. Jour. Sci. (1907), 2, sec. A, 358. 

 Luzon (Mearns). 



"Characters. — Pattern of coloration similar to that of Merula thomas- 

 soni Grant, but darker, with less contrast between the coloration of the 

 head and that of the body. Smaller, with relatively stouter bill ; preanal 

 feathers not tipped with white. 



"Description of type (adult male). — Upper surface except head and 

 neck all black; under surface of body black perceptibly washed with 

 brown on feather edges; head and neck very dark brown, almost black 

 on crown; entire under surface of wings and tail dull black; under tail- 

 coverts black with narrow median white stripes involving the shafts. 

 Iris very dark brown; eyelids, bill, feet, and claws all yellow. Female 

 exactly like the male. A younger male than the type differs only in 

 having the feathers of the under side of the body edged with yellowish 

 brown. Length, 21-5; wing, 120; tail, 101; culmen (chord measured 

 from true base), 22; bill from anterior margin of nostril, 13; tarsus, 

 34; middle toe with claw, 32.5. 



"Female. — Length, 210; wing, 117; tail, 99; culmen, 20.5; bill from 

 nostril, 13; tarsus, 33; middle toe with claw, 32." (Mearns.) 



