316 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 
279. CEYX BOURNSI Steere. 
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Ceyx bournsi STEERE, List Birds & Mams. Steere Exped. (July, 1890), 10; 
SHARPE, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1892), 17, 185; Hand-List (1900), 
2, 53; BourNs and WorcESTER, Minnesota Acad. Nat. Sci. Oce. Papers 
(1894), 1, 47; McGrecor and WorcrstTeErR, Hand-List (1906), 53. 
Ceyx malamaui STEERE, List Birds & Mams. Steere Exped. (1890), 10; 
SHARPE, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1892), 17, 184. 
Ceyx suluensis BLastus, Jour. fiir Orn. (August, 1890), 141. 
Ceyx margarethe Buasius, Jour. fiir Orn. (August, 1890), 141. 
Banton (Celestino); Basilan (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, McGregor) ; 
Bongao (Everett); Cebu (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Mindanao (Steere 
Exp., Platen, Bourns & Worcester); Negros (Bourns & Worcester); Romblon 
(Bourns & Worcester); Sibuyan (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Siquijor 
(Bourns & Worcester); Sulu (Platen, Bourns & Worcester); Tablas (Bouwrns 
& Worcester) ; Tawi Tawi (Bourns & Worcester, Everett). 
Adult (sexes similar) —Above, sides of head and neck, and wings ultra- 
marine to silvery cobalt-blue; having a more or less spotted appearance 
on head ; lores and under parts orange-rufous, but chin, throat, and middle 
of abdomen white or with a pale yellow wash; alula, primaries, and pri- 
mary-coverts black; edge of wing and outer web of first alula-quill and 
of first primary rufous; tail blue, darker than back and coverts. In a 
male from Banton the wing is 68; tail, 26; culmen from base, 39; 
tarsus, 10. 
“Young.—Similar to the adult, but less brilliant and with a duller 
red bill; the head, scapulars, and wing-covyerts black, with blue ends to 
the feathers ; the blue of the back lighter than in the adult, and inclining 
to cobalt on the lower back; loral spot as large as in the adult.” 
(Sharpe. ) 
This species exists under a number of plumages some of which have 
been described as separate species. Bourns and Worcester have collected 
a great number of specimens which show that these variations can not be 
specific. In part they say: 
“We find that we must either multiply the number of small blue 
woods Ceyces from the Philippines indefinitely or reduce the above-men- 
tioned species |C. bournsi, malamaw, suluensis, and margarethe| to one. 
It would be an almost endless task to describe the different phases of. 
plumage shown and we will only say that we have a practically unbroken 
series between a bird with a magnificent deep blue upper surface and a 
bird with a fine silvery white upper surface which has not a blue feather 
on tt. In the latter specimens the white occupies exactly the position of 
the blue in the specimens first mentioned. 
“Our series shows that these extraordinary differences of ‘color are 
an 
