Batan (McGregor, Edmonds); Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester); Cebu (Everett); Luzon (Heriot, Steere Exp., Whitehead, Worcester, McGregor); Mindanao (Mearns); Siquijor (Steere Exp.). Indian Peninsula, Burmese provinces, northern Australia, Fiji, Formosa, Celebes.
Adult male (Benguet, Luzon, May 10, 1903).—Feathers of upper parts dark brown, the bases and edges, more or less, yellowish buff, this color forming a collar on hind neck; many of the feathers of back and wing-coverts each with a small white spot near the tip; a blackish spot in front of each eye; face white slightly tinged with buff; stiff ruff-feathers white, the outer ones with black shafts and blackish brown tips; sides of neck light tawny-buff with large brown spots; under parts white with a few small black spots on breast and flanks; breast faintly washed with buff; wing-lining and axillars white with larger black spots; primaries and secondaries, above light buff, with dark brown bars and whitish tips, below white, the tips of primaries dark brown; primary-coverts orange-buff basally; rectrices white with four blackish brown bars, the bars obsolete on outermost pair. Bill white, legs dirty brown; nails brown. Length, 395; wing, 355; tail, 135; bill from anterior border of nostril, 19; tarsus, 85; middle toe with claw, 55.
Female (Batan Island, June, 1907).—Similar to the male from Benguet but darker; under parts heavily washed with ocherous-buff; face washed with vinaceous-brown; the blackish spots of under parts more numerous. Length, 406; wing, 368; tail, 130.
The difference in color between the male and female, as described above, is not due to either age or sex and occurs in many, if not in all, of the members of this genus.
Nestling (Laguna Province, Luzon, February 15, 1906).—Wings and tail, as far as developed, like those of the adult; body and legs thickly covered with yellowish buff down.
Order PSITTACIFORMES.
COCKATOOS AND PARROTS.
Bill short, extremely strong; upper mandible movable, cered and strongly hooked as in the birds of prey; toes four, the outer toe permanently reversed; tarsus short and stout, covered with small scales. Eggs pure white, seldom with any gloss; oval, or rarely spheroidal; deposited in hollow trees.
Families.
- a1. Hook of bill underneath nearly smooth or with very superficial longitudinal ridges, but with no distinct file-like surface. Loriidæ (p. [272])
- a2. Hook of bill underneath with a series of transverse ridges more or less bent along the median line and producing a file-like surface.