462 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



Adult male. Entire plumage rich chestnut-rufous with inner webs 

 of primaries and secondaries seal-brown near their tips. Iris, eyelids, 

 and bill blue; bill edged and tipped with black: legs and nails lighter 

 blue. Wing, 87; tail, excepting central rectrices, 85; central rectrices, 

 100 to 190; culmen from base, 20; bill from nostril, 13; tarsus, 16. 



Adult female and immature. Lighter in color and with lower breast, 

 abdomen, and tail-coverts whitish; central rectlicee not greatly length- 

 ened. 



"In Jour, fur Om. (1891), 2<)l. Hartert very properly calls attention 

 to the fact that confusion evidently exists as to the distribution of the 

 two rufous species of Zeocephus, and he even seems to question the 

 distinctness of the two species. We have some suggestions to offer, after 

 looking over our series of thirty-one specimens from Luzon, Mindoro, 

 Panay, Negros, Cebu, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi Tawi. First, the young 

 immature birds of Z. rufus have the white belly and general coloring 

 of Z. cinnamomeus. They are not to be distinguished from birds of 

 the latter species. Second, out of fifteen specimens from the south. 

 seven do not show a trace of White on the belly, and are of a uniform 

 deep rufous color. Third, we have a male bird in breeding plumage 

 from Cebu which is indistinguishable, so far as shade of rufou 

 concerned, from Basilan birds. The confusion between the two specie- 

 is thus readily understood. Are they then distinct? \Ve think that 

 they are for the following reasons: The average fully adult bird from 

 the northern islands is very much darker in color than the darkest of 

 the southern birds. The northern birds have the tail'much more strongly 

 graduated than that of the birds from the south. None of our speci- 

 mens from the south show any special elongation of the central tail- 

 feathers. In one specimen from Tablas and another from Sibuyan the 

 central tail-feathers exceed the rest by fully 7."> millimeters. Other birds 

 collected at the same time and place do not show nearly so strong a 

 development of these feathers, but the fact remains that nothing even 

 approaching it is shown by our specimens from the south. 



"The dark tips of the tail-feathers described by Dr. Sharpe a> char- 

 acteristic of Z. ( innamomeus are simply a sign of immaturity, as is the 

 white of the belly. 



"Zeoceplius rufus, then, inhabits the northern and central Philippines, 

 and is to be distinguished from Z '. nuumnomeus by its darker color 

 when fully adulfy and by its more strongly graduated tail, which has 

 the central feathers at least 75 millimeters longer than the oihers when 

 the birds are in perfect plumage. 



"Four males from Cebu average: Length, 223', wing, 93; tail, 116; 

 culmen, 23 ; tarsus, 21 ; middle toe with claw, 18. Five females, length, 

 201; wing, 86; tail, 106; culmen, 23; tarsus. -31 ; middle toe with claw, 

 18. A male from Sibuyan with elongated tail-feathers measures 283 



