Notes on Philippine Birds Collected by Governor W. Cameron Forbes

This being the case, it is a matter of much interest to know what forms have a pink bill in the female, and what do not.

Fregata ariel ariel Gray

Three specimens, from Tawi Tawi Island, two adult males and one adult female all taken 21 August, 1921.

Compared with Fregata ariel iredalei Mathews of the western Indian Ocean these are large birds with heavy bills, and appear wholly referable to true ariel of Australia etc.

Measurements.

Buteo japonicus (Temminck & Schlegel)

One immature example (sex not determined) was shot by Mrs. Robb White at Sagada, Bontoc, northern Luzon in July 1913 and given to Governor Forbes. This, I believe, is the first record for the species in the Philippines. The specimen, M. C. Z. 64,621, affords a wing length of 366 mm.

Xantholaema haemacephala haemacephala (Müller)

Two adult males, Mindoro, July. (Also two old skins in M. C. Z. labeled "Manilla").

Stuart Baker, (Ibis 1919, p. 219), has already pointed out the strong characters that distinguish the Philippine form of this little Barbet. I include it in these notes merely to emphasize the fact that it must be kept distinct from birds from India, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, etc. Its long bill, dark colors, and heavily striped under parts at once distinguish it.

Xantholaema rosea intermedia Shelly

Four adults, both sexes, Negros, July.

This is another strongly marked representative form, peculiar to the Philippines. It differs from X. rosea rosea (Dumont) of Java etc. in its very much larger bill (averaging 22 mm. as against 16 mm. in true rosea), slightly larger size, darker colors, and much more heavily striped under parts.

Lalage niger mitifica, subsp. nov

Twelve specimens, both sexes, Lubang near Luzon, Mindanao, Palawan, Camiguin, Camotes, Basilan, Panay, Mindoro, and Cagayan de Sulu, June, July, and August.

Type. – M. C. Z. 64,329 adult ♂, Lubang, near Luzon, 6 July, 1913. W. Cameron Forbes.

Characters. – Similar to L. niger niger (Forster), (type-locality "in India Orientali" which I will farther restrict to Singapore, being as likely as anywhere else to have been whence the type actually came), but larger; in color the adult ♂ differing in the sheen of the head and back being darker and more purplish, less greenish; the rump slightly darker gray and the tibia grayer, less whitish. The adult ♀ decidedly grayer less brownish above – deep neutral gray (the upper parts in L. nigra nigra are hair-brown to Chaetura drab).