544 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



525. PLANESTICUS THOMASSONI (Seebohm). 

 LUZON BLACK THRUSH. 



Merula thomassoni SEEBOHM, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1894), 3, 41; GRANT, 

 Ibis (1894), 508; (1895), 445; SHABPE, Hand-List (1903), 4, 120; 

 MCGREGOR and WORCESTER, Hand-Lst (1906), 83. 



Turdus thomassoni WHITEHEAD, Ibis (1899), 212. 



Bul-it, Benguet. 



Luzon (Whitehead, McGregor, M earns) . 



Adult. Entire head, neck all round, chin, throat, and chest light 

 smoky brown, darker on forehead and crown; remainder of plumage 

 black; some of the feathers at sides of abdomen tipped with white; 

 under tail-coverts with white shaft-streaks and narrow rusty brown tips. 

 Bill, legs, and nails yellow. Length of a male, plumage somewhat worn, 

 240; wing, 116; tail, 92; culmen from base, 22; bill from nostril, 14; 

 tarsus, 31. A female, wing, 118; tail, 93; culmen from base, 24; bill 

 from nostril, 15 ; tarsus, 33. Even in adult birds there is some variation 

 in the amount of white on the under tail-coverts, and rusty brown fringes 

 on the feathers of the abdomen seem to indicate immaturity. A young 

 male has the head and neck black instead of chocolate-brown and the 

 feathers of lower breast and abdomen are liberally marked with rusty 

 brown, this coloring the shafts of some feathers. * 



526. PLANESTICUS MAYONENSIS (Mearns). 



MAYON BLACK THRUSH. 



Merula mayonensis MEARNS, Phil. Jour. Sci. (1907), 2, sec. A, 358. 

 Luzon (Mearns). 



"Characters. Pattern of coloration similar to that of Merula thomas- 

 soni Grant, but darker, with less contrast between the coloration of the 

 head and that of the body. Smaller, with relatively stouter bill ; preanal 

 feathers not tipped with white. 



"Description of type (adult male). Upper surface except head and 

 neck all black; under surface of body black perceptibly washed with 

 brown on feather edges; head and neck very dark brown, almost black 

 on crown ; entire under surface of wings and tail dull black ; under tail- 

 coverts black with narrow median white stripes involving the shafts. 

 Iris very dark brown; eyelids, bill, feet, and claws all yellow. Female 

 exactly like the male. A younger male than the type differs only in 

 having the feathers of the under side of the body edged with yellowish 

 brown. Length, 215; wing, 120; tail, 101; culmen (chord measured 

 from true base), 22; bill from anterior margin of nostril, 13; tarsus, 

 34; middle toe with claw, 32.5. 



"Female. Length, 210; wing, 117; tail, 99; culmen, 20.5; bill from 

 nostril, 13; tarsus, 33; middle toe with claw, 32." (Mearns.) 



