Similar to Caprimulgus but rictal bristles wanting; a conspicuous ear-tuft on each side of head; no large white spot on primaries.
305. LYNCORNIS MACROTIS (Vigors).
PHILIPPINE EARED NIGHTJAR.
- Caprimulgus macrotis Vigors, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1831), 97.
- Lyncornis mindanensis Tweeddale, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1878), 945.
- Lyncornis macrotis Hartert, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1892), 16, 605; Grant, Ibis (1894), 519; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 383; Sharpe, Hand-List (1900), 2, 81; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 57; McGregor, Phil. Jour. Sci. (1907), 2, sec. A, 284.
Basilan (Bourns & Worcester, Celestino); Luzon (Lindsay, Möllendorff, Steere Exp., Whitehead, Celestino); Mindanao (Everett, Celestino); Mindoro (McGregor, Porter).
Adult (sexes alike).—Head light chocolate-brown, very finely vermiculated with gray and buff; along middle of head and on ear-tufts a number of large black spots; lower feathers of ear-tufts pure black; a rusty collar on neck continued on sides of neck and connected with the white spot on each side of throat; sides of face and ear-coverts black, vermiculated with cinnamon; wings, coverts, and back variously mottled and splotched with black, ocherous-buff, and cinnamon; scapulars with large black terminal spots; primaries, secondaries, and lesser coverts black with dark cinnamon vermiculations; a few of the median coverts with buff spots on tips; rectrices black with a few irregular mottled bars of dark buff; feathers of lower parts black, on chin and crop with narrow cross-lines of cinnamon, on breast tipped with wide bands of dark buff, on abdomen and sides tipped with narrower bands of light buff; under tail-coverts largely buff with irregular black cross-lines. “Iris brown; bill clear brown, tip black; feet clear brown, their scales darker brown.” (Celestino.)
Length of a male from Mindoro, 348; wing, 275; tail, 170; exposed culmen, 10; tarsus, 18; middle toe with claw, 29. Length of a female from Bataan Province, Luzon, 368; wing, 290; tail, 180; exposed culmen, 9; tarsus, 17; middle toe with claw, 29.
The crown is often largely rufous, again it may be ochraceous and the variations involve other portions of the plumage. The bars of the tail are variable, sometimes fairly regular and at other times much broken.
“We obtained a single male specimen of this fine goatsucker in Basilan. Iris very dark brown; bill black at tip, lighter at base; eyelids black; legs flesh-color, shading to dark brown on the toes; nails dirty grayish. Length, 343; wing, 276; tail, 223; tarsus, 16; middle toe with claw, 29; culmen, 13.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.)
“If these two forms [L. macrotis and L. mindanensis], the types of which are before me, are really distinct species, then both occur in north Luzon, for out of four specimens of Lyncornis sent by Mr. Whitehead, three are typical L. macrotis, perfectly similar to Vigors’s bird, and the fourth agrees perfectly with Tweeddale’s types of L. mindanensis. Personally I am inclined to believe that the latter are merely younger examples of the same species. The darker head and shorter wing may be characteristic of youth, as it seems unlikely two closely allied forms should occur in the same locality.” (Grant.)