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McGregor: Philippine Birds, 111 
81 
black, but the mantle and rump are about walnut brown. I 
have stated that “The short-tailed black males of this flycatcher 
agree with the description of Callaeops periopthalmica,” but I 
find that the two short-tailed black males in the collection, on 
which I based this statement, are imperfect, the long, streamer- 
like rectrices having been shot away. However, if the long 
rectrices are molted in the nonbreeding season, the adults will 
closely resemble Hartert’s plate. 
La Touche, 4 writing on Terpsiphone incii (Gould) in China, 
says : 
In spring most of the males have the long central rectrices, and breed in 
the red plumage as well as in the white. The latter plumage, which is that 
of the old males at least two years old, is without doubt moulted at the end 
of the summer before the autumn migration begins. 
With reference to the same species I take the liberty of 
quoting from a letter written by Mr. La Touche at Mengtsz, 
Yunnan, China, on November 3, 1920, as follows: 
During the period 1882-1919, when I paid much attention to China birds, 
I never once obtained or saw a male in white plumage on the autumn mi- 
gration. Hence my remark. Now, in this place, I have this autumn ob- 
tained three white males, all with short tails. In this province at least, T. 
incii retains the white plumage after the summer but has dropped the long 
central rectrices just as is the case with the Indian birds. 
The type of Terpsiphone nigra, which appears to be the most 
adult male collected by me, has a little white on the middle of 
the abdomen, but none on the tips of the inferior tail coverts 
(Plate 4, fig. 2). The bases of these coverts are white and the 
inner edges are light clay brown. This is the only specimen 
with the inferior tail coverts nearly all black. Each of seven 
other long-tailed males has more white on the abdomen than the 
type, and the coverts are white or clay brown; but in none are 
the coverts black with clear white tips as shown in the colored 
plate of Callaeops periopthalmica. 
In some specimens of Terpsiphone nigra, the axillars and in- 
ferior wing coverts are more or less white, and in others these 
feathers are entirely black. In none is the white so conspicuous 
as in T. princeps. It should be noted that in the adult, breeding 
male the two central rectrices are not the only ones length- 
ened, for the next two pairs are much longer than in immature 
birds. It seems probable that the type of Callaeops periopthal- 
mica is an adult male in nonbreeding plumage. This supposition 
175948 1 
4 Ibis XI 2 (1920) 666. 
