360 .MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



Adult. "Black with a blue gloss, greenish in some lights; chin, throat, 

 and larger under wing-coverts pure white. Wing, 161; tail, 32." 

 (Tweeddale.) "Iris dark brown; bill black; legs lead-gray." (White- 

 head.) 



This species is known only from the type, a female collected near Zam- 

 boanga, Mindanao, and from three specimens taken in Leyte by White- 

 head. 



Subfamily MICROPODIN/E. 



Genera. 



a 1 . Smaller; toes all directed forward, but in pairs, two toes on each side of the 

 median tarsal line; plumage nearly uniform brown TacUornis (p. 360) 



a 2 . Larger; toes all directed forward and at equal intervals; chin, throat, and 

 rump white Micropus (p. 361) 



Genus TACHORNIS Gosse, 1847. 



Toes all directed forward, in pairs, two toes on each side of the median 

 tarsal line, none of them reversible; tail deeply forked, its feathers 

 narrow; plumage nearly uniform in color without white markings. 



324. TACHORNIS PALLIDIOR McGregor. 

 PALER PALM SWIFT. 



Tachornis infumatus MCGREGOR, Bull. Philippine Mus. (1903), 1, 5. 

 Tachornis pallidior McGBEOOB. Bur. Govt. Lab. (1904), 25, 27; McGBEGOB 



and WOBCESTEB, Hand-List (1906), 59. 



Bohol (McGregor); Cebu (McGregor) ; Luzon (McGregor)^, Mindanao (Celes- 

 tino ) ; Ticao ( McGregor ) . 



Adult. Upper parts dark brown; nearly black on head, neck, and back 

 which have a faint green gloss; feathers of rump and upper tail-coverts 

 lighter brown and narrowly fringed with gray in unworn plumage, the 

 tail-coverts with dark shafts; wing-feathers blackish brown, glossy on 

 outer webs; short primaries narrowly edged with white on inner webs; 

 tail of the same color as wings; sides of head brown; chin and throat 

 light drab-gray, merging gradually into the dark drab-gray of the lower 

 breast and abdomen where the feathers are narrowly edged with whitish ; 

 stiff feathers in front of eye white with brown tips. Length in flesh, 

 114; wing, 119; lateral rectrices, 50; central rectrices, 31. 



This species is easily recognized by the deeply-forked tail and peculiar 

 paired toes; it is a near relative of Tachornis infumata from which it 

 differs chiefly in having a paler chin and throat. It has been found in 

 small numbers in the islands from which it is recorded. 



