Bii'ds of the Philippine Islands. 241 



In the adult male all the primaries, including the two 

 outermost, are white, merely tipped with black. In the 

 adult females the white, as a rule, does not extend on to the 

 outer webs of the first two primaries, and in the remaining 

 pairs the black tips are very much wider than in the male ; 

 thus the former has a white wing narrowly tipped with black, 

 the latter a black wing with a wide white band across the 

 middle. In young males the wing resembles that of the 

 female. This important sexual difference is not noticed in 

 the British Museum ' Catalogue of Birds ' (cf. vol. xiv. p. 438) . 

 The male is said to have the wing 4"5 in., but the largest 

 male specimen in our now extensive series of this species 

 measures only 4'25 in., and in the great majority of males 

 the wing never exceeds 4*1 in. The wing of the female is 

 generally rather shorter than that of the male. In the Samar 

 bird it measures 3 '8 in. 



56. Pitta steerii (Sharpe) ; Sclater, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. 

 xiv. p. 442 (1888) ; Elliot, Monograph Pittidae, pi. xxxvii. 

 (1894). 



Steere's Ant-Thrush is one of the rarest as well as one of 

 the most beautiful species of the genus. Previously to 

 Mr. Whitehead^'s visit to Samar the British Museum pos- 

 sessed only four specimens, and two of these were recently 

 acquired with the Steere Collection. The bird was not met 

 with in Leite, nor did there seem to be any ground in the 

 north of this island suitable to its habits. On Samar, 

 however, a good series of specimens was obtained. 



The plumage of some of the young birds, being in an 

 interesting stage of transition, is worth describing. The 

 youngest example, a male, has the upper parts and wings 

 like those of the adult, but the breast, sides, and flanks are 

 of a dirty greyish olive, only one or two of the silver-blue 

 feathers being visible, and the entire middle of the breast 

 and belly are pale scarlet. A rather older bird is similar to 

 the above, but down the sides and middle of the breast are 

 three lines of pale blue feathers. In both specimens these 

 are being attained by moult. In the middle of the breast a 



