546 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



the shell showing the very pale red-lilac clouded under-markings. As 

 compared with eggs of the common blackbird, the above are very much 

 redder, and closely resemble those of Turdus similliimis." {Grant and 

 Whitehead.) 



529. PLANESTICUS MALINDANGENSIS (Mearns). 



MALINDANG BLACK TERTTSH. 



Merula malindangensis Mearns. Phil. Jour. Sci. (1907), 2, sec. A, 357. 



Mindanao ( Mearns ) . 



"Characters. — Largest of the Philippine species of Merula. Breast 

 and under side of neck light drab-gray, a darker shade of this color 

 extending to the throat and chin and forming an indistinct collar around 

 the hind neck; middle of abdomen and crissum nearly Avhite; mantle, 

 back, riimp, and upper tail-coverts light sooty-brown ; wings and tail dark 

 sooTy-brown. 



"Adult male. — Upper side of head, mantle, back, rump, and upper 

 tail-coverts light sooty-brown; flanks slightly paler and browner; wings 

 and tail dark sooty-brown, more fuliginous on under surface; chest and 

 under side of neck light drab-gray, a darker shade of this color encircling 

 the neck and extending to the chin and throat, where the feathers have 

 dark shaft-streaks; sides of head pale sooty-brown; feathers of the 

 median area from chest to crissum, with broad, white edges and a dark 

 central area inclosing a sagittate white spot, giving a spotted appearance 

 to the middle of the under surface of the body; crissum with this light 

 area expanded and practically all white; under taiL-coverts sooty-brown, 

 longitudinally striped with white or pale buff. 



"Adult female. — Similar to the male but slightly smaller and dingier 

 in color with a slight rufescence on sides of lower breast and flanks. 



"Immature male. — Sides of lower chest and flanks more strongly 

 washed with raw-umber than in adult females; chest and throat darker. 

 "First plumage (male). — Upper surface dusk}', washed with raw- 

 umber, especially on the head, neck, upper back, and wing-coverts; 

 scapulars with pale rusty shaft-streaks, and some of the lesser wing- 

 coverts edged with the same; under surface sepia-brown strongly mixed 

 with reddish brown and spotted with brownish black, the rufescence 

 covering the middle of the throat and much of the chest, the blackish 

 cordate spots being confined to the tips and the rusty bands crossing the 

 middle of the feathers; whitish median stripe distinct but with pale 

 rufescent edging to the feathers except on lower al)domen; under tail- 

 coverts sepia-brown with rusty edging and broad, white, median stripes. 

 "In other specimens taken at the same season, the molt was nearly 

 finished, leaving a few feathers with rusty bands and black spots and 

 with a stronger rusty washing to the flanks than in adults." {Mearns.) 



