Birds of Celebes: Timeliidae. 5Q3 



Northern and Southern birds, we find ourselves unable to point to any tangible 

 difference between them; there is some amount of individual variation, but it 

 would be unsafe at present to say that there is any racial divergence. 



Trichostoma and Drymocataphus (examined: D. capistratus) have 12 rectrices; 

 Androphiltfs , as was first pointed out by Mr. Ogilvie Grant (Ibis 1895, 448), 

 has only 10; it has also only about three very short and inconspicuous rictal 

 (or, better, subloral) bristles. Mr. Ernst Hartert rightly refers his Celebesian 

 birds to this genus, which is a very aberrant one, known as yet only in A. accentor 

 Sharpe from Mt. Kini Balu, Borneo, and in the present A. castaneus Biittik. 

 from the highlands of Celebes. The throat of the former is spotted with black. 

 Probably some further allies of these birds will be found among some of the 

 known species of Drymocataphus and others when the rectrices have been examined. 



GENUS CATAPONERA Hart.] 



A genus peculiar to Celebes, in size and appearance very Thrush-like, 

 differing chiefly by the short, rounded wing and the black parietal stripe. The 

 1'* primary is about half the length of the 2"'*, ^which is about as long as the 

 secondaries, the 4"', 5*^ and G''' primaries forming the tip of the wing. Tail of 

 12 feathers, nearly as long as the wing, and nearly square in shape. Bill 

 Thrush-like, nostril oval, the frontal plumes impinging to its base ; rictal bristles 

 of moderate size; behind the eye a small bare patch. Tarsus rather long, '/a 

 the wing-length, not scutellated, excejjt near the foot; toes long, but shorter 

 than the tarsus, the middle toe exceeding the lateral ones by more than the 

 length of its claw. 



The following is the only known species, and it seems to stand between 

 the Thrushes and the Crateropodinae. 



4- * 205. CATAPONERA TURDOIDES Hart. 



Black-browed Babbler. 

 Plate XXIX. 



Cataponera turdoides (1) Hartert, Nov. Zool. 1896, HI, 70, 151. 



Adult male. Above olive-brown, slightly paler on the head, duller on wings and tail (the 

 latter crossed with obsciu-e, narrow bars seen only in certain hghts); under parts 

 greyer (or more ohve-drab), inclining to whitish fawn-colour on abdomen and flanks, 

 russet on thighs and under tail-coverts, browner on under wing-coverts; apex of chin 

 wliitish; a broad superciliary stripe from lores to sides of nape, together 

 with the anterior malar region black; a naked triangular space behind the eye: 

 bill orange, "feet orange-yellow" — Hartert; wing 116 mm; tail 106; tarsus 38; middle 

 toe with claw 34; cubnen from cranial suture 24 (2 "native collector", Bonthain 

 Peak, 6000 ft., Oct. 1895: Everett — C 14S81). 



Sexes. The sexes are not known to differ in coloration. 



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