A Manual of Philippine Birds

by Richard C. McGregor

Genera.

• a¹. General color green or greenish yellow; rectrices fourteen, under coverts usually equal to or longer than shortest rectrix; third primary deeply scooped near middle of inner web.
  • b¹. Horny nail of bill reaching feathers of forehead Treron (p. [25])
  • b². Horny nail of bill not reaching feathers of forehead.
    • c¹. Tail slightly graduated; under tail-coverts broadly streaked, the shafts black Sphenocercus (p. [26])
    • c². Tail square; under tail-coverts not streaked, the shafts of the same color as the webs Osmotreron (p. [26])
• a². General color brown; rectrices twelve, under coverts shorter than shortest rectrix; third primary not scooped Phapitreron (p. [29])

Genus TRERON Vieillot, 1816.

This genus differs from the other green pigeons in having the horny portion of culmen extending back to frontal feathers; a small naked area around eye; pattern and colors of the plumage very similar to those of Osmotreron axillaris.

11. TRERON NIPALENSIS (Hodgson).

THICK-BILLED GREEN PIGEON.

• Toria nipalensis Hodgson, As. Research (1836), 19, 164, pl. 9.
• Treron nipalensis Salvadori, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1893), 21, 34; Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 53; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1901), 1, 82; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 9.
• Treron nasica Steere, List Birds and Mams. Steere Exp. (1890), 24.

Mindoro (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Palawan (Steere, Everett, Whitehead, Platen, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Celestino, White). Nepal to Burma, Malay Peninsula, Siam, Cochin China, Tenasserim, Borneo.

Adult male.—Crown ashy, forehead lighter; face and neck dark gray, the latter followed by a narrow line of ashy gray; mantle, including lesser wing-coverts, dark chestnut; lower back, rump, and tail-coverts dark green; under parts yellowish green, breast more yellowish; thighs and flanks darker and greener, mixed with white; under tail-coverts cinnamon; wings black; median and greater wing-coverts and secondaries edged with yellow; some of the inner secondaries tipped with green; tail above, ashy gray with a black band some distance from the tip, but the median rectrices green and the next two partly green. “Legs and feet vary from lake-pink to coral-red; orbital skin pea-green; the irides vary from bright orange to yellowish red, with an inner, deep-blue ring more or less apparent; gape and base of upper mandible to nostril bright red; rest of bill pale yellowish, or greenish white, tipped with greenish.” (Hume.) Two males from Palawan measure: Length, 250, 260; wing, 132, 136; tail, 89, 87; culmen from base, 20, 21; tarsus, 19.8, 20.