A Manual of Philippine Birds

by Richard C. McGregor

Bill very broad and flat; ten tail-feathers; middle toe-nail not pectinate; plumage mottled.

Genus BATRACHOSTOMUS Gould, 1838.

Bill extremely broad and short; culmen strongly curved; nostrils covered by long hair-like plumes; eyes rather large; a bunch of elongated feathers behind each eye; tarsus short, feet weak; outer and middle toes united for half of their basal joint; tail moderately long, outermost rectrices very short, the next pair considerably shorter than third; plumage lax, in color reddish brown, buff, or gray, with spots of white or creamy fawn, barred and vermiculated with blackish brown. Birds of this genus fly at night feeding upon insects and remain concealed in dense forest during the day. Their capture is extremely uncertain and difficult. The nest is a small pad-like structure saddled on a branch of a tree; the single egg is white.

Species.

• a¹. A white or buff band across chest; another similar band across lower breast.
  • b¹. Bill larger; culmen from base, 25 mm. or more.
    • c¹. Wing longer, 155 mm. or more. septimus (p. [296])
    • c². Wing shorter, 140 mm. or less. menagei (p. [298])
  • b². Bill shorter; culmen from base, about 20 mm.; wing, about 130. microrhynchus (p. [297])
• a². No light band across under parts; throat and abdomen much mottled with cream-color or light buff.
  • b¹. Wing more than 130 mm. javensis (p. [300])
  • b². Wing less than 125 mm. affinis (p. [301])

260. BATRACHOSTOMUS SEPTIMUS Tweeddale.

TWEEDDALE’S FROGMOUTH.

• Batrachostomus septimus Tweeddale, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1877), 542; Challenger Report, Zool. (1881), 2, pt. 8, pl. 2; Hartert, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1892), 16, 638; Sharpe, Hand-List (1900), 2, 43; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 50.

Basilan (Celestino); Mindanao (Murray, Everett, Koch & Schadenberg, Bourns & Worcester, Goodfellow, Celestino).

Male.—General color rufous-brown; wings and upper parts chestnut-rufous mixed with fine lines of lighter brown and blackish brown, taking the form of obsolete bars on rectrices; a narrow white band across mantle, bordered on each side with blackish brown; outer webs of scapulars whitish, each feather with a black spot near its tip; a wide creamy band across the fore breast, each feather tipped and double barred with narrow lines of blackish brown, the double bars concealed; another light band about 30 mm. posterior to this with blackish tips but without the double bars; crissum buffy; primaries and secondaries blackish, mixed with chestnut-rufous on outer webs; primary-coverts nearly totally black, each of the secondary-coverts with a large white spot at tip, preceded by a smaller black spot; axillars buff. A male from Basilan measures: Wing, 160; tail, 121; culmen from base, 29; width of bill at gape, 41; tarsus, 16.