562 MANUAL-OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 
light flesh-color; nails light brown. Length, 165 mm. A male from 
Masbate measures: Wing, 84; tail, 73; culmen from base, 20; bill from 
nostril, 12; tarsus, 28; middle t ith claw, 23. A male from Ticao, 
wing, 79; tail, 66; culmen ee 18; bill from nostril, 11; tarsus, 
27; middle toe with claw, 22. 
‘A young male, nearly adult, has a few white feathers on chin and 
chroat and: a faint wash of light buff on the flanks. A much younger 
bird has many of the feathers of the back tipped with rusty brown and 
the greater wing-coverts and quills washed with the same color; chin 
and throat almost pure white; an ill-defined black collar; the entire under 
surface washed with light buff, deeper on the flanks, 
“This well-marked species is extremely rare in Masbate. It feeds in 
dense thickets in the deep woods and we never heard it utter a note. 
The Luzon bird, C. luzoniensis, has a superciliary stripe, but this stripe 
is not nearly so broad as in this species, and as the strongly marked 
superciliary line is one of the most noticeable characters of the Masbate 
bird we have named it accordingly.” (Bourns and Worcester.) 
544. KITTACINCLA NIGRA Sharpe. 
PALAWAN BLACK SHAMA, 
Cittocincla nigra SUARPE, Trans. Linn. Soc. 2d. ser. Zool. (1877), 1, 335, 
pl. 52; Cat Birds Brit. Mus. (1883), 7, 90; Hand-List (1903), 4, 161; 
McGrecor and WorcEsTER, Hand-List (1906), 86. 
Balabac (Hverett); Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester); Palawan (Steere, 
Everett, Whitehead, Platen, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Everett, Celestino, 
White). 
Adult male and female.—Almost entirely glossy blue-black; some 
feathers of lower abdomen, flanks, and sides of back with white shafts, 
or with subterminal white spots which are more or less concealed ; under 
tail-coverts black, broadly tipped with white; four central rectrices black, 
the others white with concealed black bases; wings black, most of the 
feathers edged with glossy blue-black. Length, 215 to 220 mm. A male 
from Palawan measures: Wing, 88; tail, 105; culmen from base, 17; bill 
from nostril, 12; tarsus, 26; middle toe with claw, 23. A female, wing, 
81; tail, 98; culmen, from base, 17; bill from nostril, 11; tarsus, 22. 
Young.—Similar to the adult but throat and breast less glossy; abdo- 
men, flanks, and crissum entirely white, thighs brown; the flanks slightly 
washed with earthy brown. In more nearly adult plumage the throat 
and breast become glossy and the white of the abdomen is reduced in 
extent and broken up; the thighs become black. 
“Quite common in Palawan, where we found it skulking in thickets in 
the deep woods, usually near or on the ground, though it would fly up 
oe 
