452 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 
(Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Samar (Steere Hxp., Bourns & Worcester) ; 
Sibutu (Lverett); Sibuyan (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor) ; Siquijor (Bourns 
& Worcester, Celestino) ; Sulu (Guillemard, Bourns & Worcester) ; Tablas (Bourns 
é& Worcester); Tawi Tawi (Bourn 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 slightly 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 ground 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 with 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. 
“Tf 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. azurea, 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 
2s ee 
