Leyte (Whitehead); Samar (Whitehead, Bourns & Worcester).

“Adult male.—Top of head, sides of face, ear-coverts, and hind neck nearly black; back, rump, and upper wing-coverts uniform dark slaty blue; quills and tail fulvous-brown, slightly washed with slaty blue; chin and throat white; entire breast bluish gray, lightest on center of breast; abdomen white; flanks washed with bluish gray; under wing-coverts light buff, nearly white at base; sides dark slate-color as are under wing-coverts and axillars, the latter, however, mottled with white; a superciliary stripe of white beginning over eye and extending to nape, then inward, nearly reaching the median line; sexes alike. Iris very dark brown; bill black; legs, feet, and nails very light brown. Measurements from four males: Length, 119; wing, 61; tail, 38; culmen, 15; tarsus, 20.

“The specimens described are in breeding plumage. They were shot close to, or on, the ground in dense thickets in the deep woods.

“This species is closely allied to M. mindanensis Blasius, from which it differs in its darker head, lighter tail, and much larger superciliary stripe. None of our specimens shows a white bar on the rump, but we find the Mindanao-Basilan birds variable in this respect.” (Bourns and Worcester.)

“Female.—Upper parts rusty brown, darkest on the crown, and shading into chestnut on the upper tail-coverts, the superciliary stripes of the male only represented by a white feather or two on the sides of the occiput; wings and tail dark brown, the exposed parts of the quills mostly chestnut; sides of the head and neck light rusty brown, palest round the eye, and forming a rather marked ring; under parts much like those of the male, but the distinct gray pectoral zone is replaced by one tinged with rusty; thighs brownish buff, under tail-coverts buff. The type measures: Length, 109; culmen, 14; wing, 61; tail, 37; tarsus, 19. A second female measures: Length, 109; culmen, 15; wing, 62; tail, 37; tarsus, 19.

“In general appearance the female of Muscicapula samarensis bears a close resemblance to Rhynomyias ruficauda, the under parts being strangely alike in both. The latter species is, however, easily recognized by its much longer tail. ‘Iris and bill black; tarsus bluish white; feet white.—J. W.’

“The Samar white-browed flycatcher is described by Messrs. Bourns and Worcester as having the sexes alike, but a mistake has evidently been made in ascertaining the sex of the slate-colored bird described as a female. Mr. Whitehead obtained two pairs of this species, and the females differ entirely from the males in the color of the upper parts, which are rusty brown, while the strongly marked white eyebrow-stripes are practically absent. There can not be the slightest doubt that the rufous-brown females are fully adult, for one was shot from a nest with four eggs, and that they belong to the same species as the slate-gray males is almost equally certain.

“I observe that the type of M. mindanensis Blasius, Jour. für Orn. (1890), 147, a gray bird, is said to have been a female, but here probably a mistake has been made. There are two adult gray examples of this flycatcher from the Steere collection, both of which are said to be males, and they agree perfectly with the description of the type.” (Grant.)

Whitehead secured two fresh eggs of the Samar white-browed flycatcher near Paranas, Samar, on June 17, 1896. The eggs and nest are described as follows: