566 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



white; tail as in the male, but the dark parts not quite so dark; under 

 parts as in the male. After the autumn molt both sexes have a huffish 

 brown margin to every feather, so that they are scarcely distinguishable, 

 and resemble the adult female in breeding plumage except that the quills 

 and tail-featliers are margined with huffish brown at the tip, and the 

 innermost secondaries and wing-coverts are similarly margined, not only 

 at the tip but along the outside webs; the under parts are also darker 

 in color. It is not kno-RTi that birds of the year differ from adults. 



"Young in fust plumage resemble the female, but have obscure trans- 

 verse terminal dark bars and pale centers to most of the feathers of tlie 

 upper and under parts." (Seehohm.) 



The only specimen of the wheatear recorded from the Philippines, a 

 male from Calayan, measures: Wing, 97; tail, 57; eulmen from base, 

 15; bill from nostril, 10; tarsus, 27. 



Family SYLVIID^. 



Bill slender, short or moderately long; upper mandible with a small 

 notch; eulmen slightly curved near the tip; nostrils exposed; rictal 

 bristles usually inconspicuous; wing rounded and curved to the body, 

 tertials much shorter than secondaries; tarsus slender, longer than bill 

 from gape; tail rounded, wedge-shaped, or graduate. Nearly all the 

 members of this family are plainly colored and the sexes closely resemble 

 each other. The young birds are unspotted; they either resemble the 

 adults, or else they are more highly colored. Some of the genera of 

 flycatchers are very similar to certain genera which are here placed in the 

 Sylviidce. 



Characteristic species of the Turdldce, MuscicapidcB, and SylviidcB are 

 easily recognized and distinguished, but the three families intergrade 

 through intermediate genera so that even the highest authorities on 

 classification are by no means agreed as to the respective limits of these 

 three families. 



a'. Tail with twelve rectrices. 



b'. Tail wedge-shaped, or at least decidedly rounded, the rectrices usually 

 pointed, 

 c'. Wing longer than tail. 



(1^. First primary shorter than primary-coverts and more or less pointed. 



e\ Rictal bristles minute Locustella (p. 567) 



e-. Rictal bristles strong Acrocephalus (p. 5(59) 



d-. First primary longer than primary-coverts, equal to one-half the second 

 primary or more. 

 e\ P>ill much longer; hind toe with claw less than exposed eulmen. 



Orthotomus (p. 572) 

 e'. Bill much shorter; hind toe with claw more than culnion from base. 



Cisticola (p. 579) 



