PIPRISOMA. 641 



Genus PIPKISOMA Blyth, 1844. 



Bill very short and stout, its greatest width considerably more than bill 

 from nostril; gonys strongly convex; wing long and pointed; first (outer- 

 most) primary wanting; second, third, and fourth primaries subequal 

 and longest; tail extending beyond the end of middle toe. Upper parts 

 light brown; breast and abdomen white, streaked with brown. 



651. PIPRISOMA >CRUGINOSUM (Bourns and Worcester). 

 RUSTY FLOWERPECKER, 



Prionochilus ceruginosus BOURNS and WORCESTER, Minnesota Acad. Nat. Sci. 



Occ. Papers (1894), 1, 20. 

 Piprisoma ccruginosum GRANT, Ibis (1895), 454; WHITEHEAD, Ibis (1899), 



235; MCGREGOR and WORCESTER, Hand-List (1906), 98. 



Cebu (Bourns & Worcester); Lubang (McGregor); Luzon ( Whitehead, Mc- 

 Gregor) ; Mindanao (Bourns & Worcester) ; Mindoro (Everett) ; Romblon (Mc- 

 Gregor) ; Sibuyan (McGregor). 



Adult (sexes alike). Above dark hair-brown, faintly washed with 

 olive; rump and tail-coverts olivaceous; wing-feathers and rectrices 

 blackish brown, edged with olivaceous ; two outer pairs of rectrices tipped 

 with white on inner webs ; lores whitish ; white malar line separated from 

 throat by a hair-brown line; under parts white; breast, sides cf throat 

 and of abdomen, and flanks boldly streaked with hair-brown; under tail- 

 coverts white with median, basal, brown markings. A male from Luzon 

 measures: Wing, 66; tail, 37; culmen from base, 9; bill from nostril, 6; 

 greatest width of bill, 6 ; tarsus, 14. A female from Luzon, wing, 60 ; 

 tail, 33 ; culmen from base, 10 ; bill from nostril, 6 ; tarsus, 13. 



Young. Similar to the adult but the upper parts darker and clearer 

 brown; stripes on under parts indefinite and almost obsolete; the whole 

 plumage is gray rather than brown. 



"Found in the forest only. Iris brick-red ; legs, feet, and nails nearly 

 black ; upper mandible brown, lower gray." (Bourns and Worcester MS.) 



Family NECTARINIID^. 



Bill slender, usually strongly decurved and tapering to the sharply 

 pointed tip; bill as long as head or much longer, without notch or hook, 

 but the cutting edges minutely serrated for their distal thirds ; rictal 

 bristles inconspicuous or lacking; each nostril opening coveied by a 

 large opercle; first primary less than one-half the second, the latter 

 decidedly shorter than third which nearly equals the fourth and fifth; 

 tail square, rounded, or strongly graduated. 



Subfamilies. 



a 1 . Bill and head about equal in length; sexes different in colors; plumage of 

 male more or less metallic Nectariniinae (p. 642) 



a 2 . Bill at least twice as long as the head ; sexes alike in colors and without 

 metallic plumage Arachnotherinse (p. 662) 



