Female.—Similar to the male but colors less rufescent; white collar less sharply defined and the light webs of scapulars washed with rufous. A female from Basilan measures: Wing, 150; tail, 114; culmen from base, 27; width of bill at gape, 38; tarsus, 14.

This species is easily distinguished from B. javensis by its larger size and comparatively much shorter tail, and by the sexes being similar in their general coloration.

261. BATRACHOSTOMUS MICRORHYNCHUS Grant.
SMALL-BILLED FROGMOUTH.

Luzon (Whitehead, McGregor).

“Adult male in very dark plumage.—Crown brownish black marked and mottled with buff, nuchal band of the same color; mantle and back very similar to the crown, but with more buff finely intermixed; scapulars mostly clear buff, with mottled black barrings on the inner webs and a black subterminal spot; wing-coverts black mottled with rufous, most of the median and greater with a whitish spot at the extremity of the outer web; sides of head, chin, and throat finely mottled and barred with black and buff, darker on the hinder cheek; bands above and below the chest whitish, edged with black; chest whitish buff, finely mottled with black; belly rather paler and more coarsely marked.

“Adult female.—General color uniform chestnut, with scarcely a trace of any black markings except on the secondary quills; in other respects very similar in plumage to the female of B. septimus. The outer webs of the scapulars rufous-buff, each with a small subterminal black spot; greater and median wing-coverts with a terminal white spot on the outer web, edged internally with black; nuchal and pectoral bands white, edged with black.” (Grant.)

Another male specimen was taken by Whitehead near Cape Engaño, northern Luzon. “It is an interesting specimen in the chestnut phase of plumage, the upper parts being like those of the female type described [above], but the outer webs of the scapulars are pale buff, as in the dark-colored male type, though the subterminal black spots are small, as in the female. The feathers of the throat and of the chest between the white bands are paler chestnut than in the female, and have white middles irregularly edged and barred with black; belly, flanks, and under tail-coverts brownish white, with a few faint reddish brown mottlings.

“As will be seen, the length and width of the culmen are slightly greater than in the types. There can not be the slightest doubt that these three differently plumaged birds all belong to one species, though Mr. Whitehead was inclined to believe that the dark and rufous forms represented distinct species.” (Grant.)