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 buffish 
brown margin to every feather, sqgghat they are scarcely distinguishable, 
and resemble the adult female in breeding plumage except that the quills 
and tail-feathers are margined with buffish 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 known that birds of the year differ from adults. 
“Young in first plumage resemble the female, but have obscure trans- 
verse terminal dark bars and pale centers to most of the feathers of the 
upper and under parts.” (Seebohm.) 
The only specimen of the wheatear recorded from the Philippines, a 
male from Calayan, measures: Wing, 97; tail, 57; culmen from base, 
15; bill from nostril, 10; tarsus, 27. 
Family SYLVIIDZ. 
Bill slender, short or moderately long; upper mandible with a small 
notch; culmen 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 
Sylviide. 
Characteristic species of the Turdide, Muscicapide, and Sylvtide 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. 
Genera. 
a’. Tail with twelve rectrices. 
b'. Tail wedge-shaped, or at least decidedly rounded, the rectrices usually 
pointed. 
ce’, Wing longer than tail. 
d', First primary shorter than primary-coverts and more or less pointed. 
6 ICL, (DrIStIEeS MINMtes. os eee ee eee eee eee Locustella (p. 567) 
e. Rictal’bristles strong ci ieee te ee ee ee ee Acrocephalus (p. 569) 
d?, First primary longer than primary-coverts, equal to one-half the second 
primary or more. 
e*, Bill much longer; hind toe with claw less than exposed culmen. 
Orthotomus (p. 572) 
e?. Bill much shorter; hind toe with claw more than culmen from base. 
Cisticola (p. 579) 
