Adult female.—Above, including sides of head and of neck, olive-gray, becoming olive-brown on lower back, and ferruginous on tail and its coverts; lores and eye-ring pale ocherous-buff; wings brown; wing-coverts edged with olive-gray; secondaries edged with olive-brown; chin, throat, breast, and flanks very pale orange-buff; abdomen and tail-coverts white. Length of a female from Benguet Province, Luzon, 115; wing, 57; tail, 41; culmen from base, 12; bill from nostril, 8; tarsus, 17.
Male in first plumage.—Above dusky brown, each feather with a rusty yellowish buff spot, crown and nape rather streaked; upper tail-coverts rusty; sides of head like crown, with no indication of the adult plumage; wings brown; coverts bluish, each feather with a large buff spot; chin, throat, and upper breast white with a wash of buff; breast more heavily washed with buff and each feather edged with black, producing a striped effect; abdomen and under tail-coverts white; wing-lining, axillars, and flanks yellowish buff.
Female in first plumage.—A young female is very much like the young male, but the upper parts are dull olive and washed rather than spotted with rusty buff.
The Luzon flycatcher breeds in Benguet Province where young were taken in July. Specimens from Calayan Island are indistinguishable.
405. MUSCICAPULA NIGRORUM Whitehead.
WHITEHEAD’S FLYCATCHER.
- Muscicapula nigrorum Whitehead, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1897), 6, 43; Ibis (1899), 106 (habits, plumage); Sharpe, Hand-List (1901), 3, 224; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 72.
“Male adult.—Most nearly allied to M. luzoniensis Grant. The general color of the upper parts less gray, but dark slaty blue as in M. hyperythra. The chin is pure white, the rest of the under parts richer orange-buff; belly white.
“Female adult.—General color of the upper parts dull slate-gray, and not grayish olive-brown as in the female of M. luzoniensis; lores and feathers round the eye whiter; breast and under parts as in the male of M. luzoniensis.” (Whitehead.)