CENTROPUS. 385 



Siquijor (Bourns & Worcester) ; Sulu (Platen, Bourns d Worcester) ; Tawi Tawi 

 (Bourns & Worcester). China, Assam, Burma, Malay Peninsula, Moluccas, Su- 

 matra, Java, Borneo, Celebes. 



Adult. General color including tail black, glossed with dark oil- 

 green ; shafts of the feathers strong and glossy black ; wings light chestnut 

 or reddish buff; coverts and inner secondaries more or less mottled or 

 streaked with blackish brown, the coverts with pale shaft-stripes; tail 

 tipped with pale buff. Iris brown; bill blackish; legs and feet lead- 

 blue; nails blackish. Length, 375 to 400; a male from Mindoro meas- 

 ures, wing, 162; tail, 225; culmen from base, 29; bill from nostril, 18; 

 tarsus, 45 ; middle toe with claw, 44. A female from Bohol : Wing, 160 ; 

 tail, 210; culmen from base, 26; bill from nostril, 14; tarsus, 34; middle 

 toe with claw, 39. 



Young. Upper parts seal-brown, somewhat mixed with rusty buff; 

 shafts of feathers on sides of head, neck, and mantle pale buff; back 

 blackish brown, mottled with rusty buff ; upper tail-coverts greatly length- 

 ened, two of the feathers being fully two-thirds the length of the rec- 

 trices, in color black glossed with green and crossed by numerous bars 

 of rusty buff. 



The young plumage here described is usually considered to be put on 

 each winter even by birds that have attained the black adult plumage. 

 It is usually referred to as the "seasonal" or "non-breeding plumage." 

 Blanford, however, under the closely related Centra pus bengalensis says: 

 "The second garb is called the winter or seasonal plumage by most authors, 

 but I can find no evidence that it is ever assumed by birds that have 

 once attained adult coloration, and there are several winter birds in the 

 British Museum collection with the adult dress. The long upper tail- 

 coverts appear peculiar to the immature plumage." Fauna British India, 

 Birds (1895), 3, 243. 



"We record this species from Leyte and Bohol on the strength of 

 British Museum specimens stated in the Catalogue of Birds to have 

 been collected in these islands, though no mention seems to have been 

 made of them in the Marquis of Tweeddale's report on Mr. Everett's 

 collections. 



"Quite common in Sulu and Tawi Tawi ; not rare in the other islands 

 indicated. Lives in the grass in open fields. Iris very dark brown; 

 legs and feet blue-black ; bill black. Food insects. Three males average, 

 345 in length; wing, 139; tail, 180; culmen, 24; tarsus, 36; middle toe 

 with claw, 37. Five females, length, 368 ; wing, 159 ; tail, 199 ; culmen, 

 31 ; tarsus, 39; middle toe with claw, 39." (Bourns and Worcester MS.) 

 77719 25 



