446 MANUAL OP PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



dark brown ; bill black ; legs, feet, and nails very light brown. Measure- 

 ments from four males: Length, 119; wing, 61; tail, 38; culmen, 15; 

 tarsus, 20. 



"The specimens described are in breeding plumage. They were shot 

 close to, or on, the ground in dense thickets in the deep woods. 



"This species is closely allied to M. mindanensis Blasius, from which 

 it differs in its darker head, lighter tail, and much larger superciliary 

 stripe. None of our specimens shows a white bar on the rump, but we 

 find the Mindanao-Basilan birds variable in this respect." (Bourns and 

 Worcester.) 



"Female. Upper parts rusty brown, darkest on the crown, and shad- 

 ing into chestnut on the upper tail-coverts, the superciliary stripes of the 

 male only represented by a white feather or two on the sides of the 

 occiput; wings and tail dark brown, the exposed parts of the quills 

 mostly chestnut; sides of the head and neck light rusty brown, palest 

 round the eye, and forming a rather marked ring; under parts much 

 like those of the male, but the distinct gray pectoral zone is replaced by 

 one tinged with rusty; thighs brownish buff, under tail-coverts buff. 

 The type measures: Length, 109; culmen, 14: wing, 61; tail, 37; tar- 

 sus, 19. A second female measures: Length, 109; culmen, 15; wing, 

 62; tail, 37; tarsus, 19. 



"In general appearance the female of Muscicapula samarensis bears 

 a close resemblance to Rhynomyias ruficauda, the under parts being 

 strangely alike in both. The latter species is, however, easily recognized 

 by its much longer tail. 'Iris and bill black; tarsus bluish white; feet 

 white. J. W.' 



"The Samar white-browed flycatcher is described by Messrs. Bourns 

 and Worcester as having the sexes alike, but a mistake has evidently been 

 made in ascertaining the sex of the slate-colored bird described as a 

 female. Mr. Whitehead obtained two pairs of this species, and the 

 females differ entirely from the males in the color of the upper parts, 

 which are rusty brown, while the strongly marked white eyebrow-stripes 

 are practically absent. There can not be the slightest doubt that the 

 rufous-brown females are fully adult, for one was shot from a nest with 

 four eggs, and that they belong to the same species as the slate-gray 

 males is almost equally certain. 



"I observe that the type of M. mindanensis Blasius, Jour, fur Orn. 



(1890), 147, a gray bird, is said to have been a female, but here probably 



a mistake has been made. There are two adult gray examples of this 



flycatcher from the Steere collection, both of which are said to be males, 



and they agree perfectly with the description of the type." (Grant.) 



Whitehead secured two fresh eggs of the Samar white-browed fly- 



