A Manual of Philippine Birds

by Richard C. McGregor

• Turdus moluccensis P. L. S. Müller, Natursyst. Suppl. (1776), 144.
• Pitta cyanoptera Temminck, Pl. Col. (1823), 218; Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1888), 14, 420; Hume, Oates ed. Nests & Eggs Ind. Bds. (1890), 2, 283; Sharpe, Hand-List (1901), 3, 180.
• Pitta fastosa McGregor, Phil. Jour. Sci. (1907), 2, sec. A, 286.

Basilan (Celestino). Burma, Siam, Cambodia, southern China, Malay Peninsula, Borneo.

Adult (sexes alike).—Sides of head including lores, cheeks, supercilia, and ear-coverts black, connected by a wide black collar; wide vertical stripe black, bordered on each side by a wide stripe of fulvous brown, the feathers edged with pale buff on exterior webs; back, scapulars, and tertials dark green; rump, upper tail-coverts, and lesser and median wing-coverts bright ultramarine-blue; chin black; throat white; lower throat, breast, abdomen, and flanks ruddy buff, most intense on breast; vent, under tail-coverts, and middle of abdomen bright red; tail black, tipped with dull blue; primaries black, each feather with a white patch, mesial and smallest on first, reaching tip on seventh; secondaries black, edged with dull blue on terminal half; alula, primary-coverts, axillars, and wing-lining black. A male measures: Wing, 119; tail, 38; culmen from base, 26; bill from nostril, 17; tarsus, 39. A female from Basilan (type of Pitta fastosa) measures: Length in flesh, 190; wing, 117; tail, 40; culmen from base, 28; bill from nostril, 18; tarsus, 36.

The type of Pitta fastosa McGregor proves to be a specimen of P. moluccensis. This species is migratory.

Suborder ACROMYODI.

Characters the same as those given in the key to Suborders.

Families.

• a¹. Width of gape about twice the length of bill from nostril; bill short and weak; secondaries about one-half as long as wing; legs and feet weak. Hirundinidæ (p. [424])
• a². Width of gape usually much less than, or at most about equal to, bill from nostril; secondaries more than one-half as long as wing.
  • b¹. Tarsus booted, its anterior face consisting of a single plate, occasionally with obsolete transverse divisions; or, sometimes with one or two transverse lines near the foot.
    • c¹. Tarsus not longer than bill from gape, usually much less.
      • d¹. First primary more than one-half the length of the second. Pycnonotidæ (p. [496])
      • d². First primary much less than one-half the length of the second. Certhiidæ (p. [611])
    • c². Tarsus decidedly longer than bill from gape.
      • d¹. Tertials decidedly shorter than the secondaries.
      • d². Tertials longer than the secondaries; hind claw usually longer than the hind toe. Motacillidæ (p. [664])
  • b². Tarsus distinctly scutellate, in front at least.
    • c¹. Posterior face of tarsus rounded and scutellate. Alaudidæ (p. [673])
    • c². Posterior face of tarsus compressed and acute, without transverse divisions.
      • d¹. Cutting edges of bill minutely serrated.
      • d². Cutting edges of bill not serrated.

Family HIRUNDINIDÆ.