“Very abundant about dead trees in open fields both in Sulu and Tawi Tawi. Seven males from Sulu average, 136 in length; wing, 84; tail, 34; culmen, 20; tarsus, 15; middle toe with claw, 17. Three females from same place, length, 142; wing, 81; tail, 37; culmen, 17; tarsus, 15; middle toe with claw, 17. Iris dark brown to brownish red; legs and feet olive-brown, nails nearly black; bill black at tip, ashy gray at base.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.)
Genus TIGA Kaup, 1836.
Three toes, two in front, one behind; bill much smaller and weaker than in Chrysocolaptes; culmen curved; nostrils situated near the culmen, nasal ridge weak; occipital crest full.
362. TIGA EVERETTI Tweeddale.
EVERETT’S THREE-TOED WOODPECKER.
- Tiga everetti Tweeddale, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1878), 612, pl. 37; Hargitt, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1890), 18, 418; Sharpe, Hand-List (1900), 2, 225; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 65.
Balabac (Everett); Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Palawan (Steere, Everett, Lempriere, Platen, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Celestino, White).
Male.—Forehead, crown, occipital crest, back, and rump scarlet; feathers of crown with black bases; mantle, wing-coverts, and secondaries golden yellow; a few of the mantle-feathers slightly washed with scarlet; primaries, tail, and tail-coverts blackish brown; inner webs of quills with large white spots; a wide black band from eye to ear-coverts, above this and behind eye a pale buff line bordered above with black; a pale buff line from corner of mouth passing below eye and ear-coverts to side of neck, below this a black line extending from base of lower mandible to side of neck and washed with crimson on the jaws; lower parts pale creamy buff, spotted and barred with blackish brown; a large patch on fore breast olivaceous brown, feathers just below this with large blackish brown centers. Length of a male from Palawan, 275; wing, 136; tail, not fully grown, 92; culmen from base, 31; tarsus, 23.
Female.—Differs from the male in wanting the red on jaw, forehead, and crown, these parts being black; crest-feathers black with some red near their tips. Length of a female from Palawan, 255; wing, 137; tail, 95; culmen from base, 30; tarsus, 23.
An immature female has no red on the crest.