“A new genus of Muscicapidæ most nearly allied to Arses, which it resembles in having a disk-like wattle formed by the prolongation of the eyelid, which entirely surrounds the rather large eye. As in Terpsiphone, there is a large, full, occipital crest, and the tarsi and toes are short and slender; but the tail is like that of Rhipidura, wedge-shaped and composed of twelve feathers, the outer pair being two-thirds of the length of the middle pair. The first flight-feather is half the length of the second, which is about equal to the tenth; the fourth being slightly the longest.” (Grant.)
427. CALLAEOPS PERIOPTHALMICA Grant.
SHORT-TAILED PARADISE FLYCATCHER.
- Callaeops periopthalmica Grant, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1895), 4, 18; Ibis (1895), 253; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 108; Sharpe, Hand-List (1901), 3, 263; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 74.
Luzon (Whitehead).
“Adult male.—General color deep black with a slight purplish gloss, especially on the back and breast; the middle of lower breast and belly white, the under tail-coverts being edged with the same color. Wattle surrounding the eye, bill, and feet said to be pale blue. Length, 216; wing, 89; tail, 114; tarsus, 15. The only specimen sent home by Whitehead was not of his own collecting, but purchased in Manila and, as I understand, said to have been obtained in that vicinity. The color of the soft parts and sex are, I fancy, only given on the authority of the collector from whom the bird was obtained.” (Grant.)
Genus TERPSIPHONE Gloger, 1827.
Bill large and depressed; rictal bristles numerous, coarse, and long; head with a full occipital crest; eye surrounded by a wide fleshy wattle; rectrices graduated. The sexes are similar in plumage during the first two years and the birds breed in this immature condition. In the third year the male develops a distinctive plumage and his central rectrices grow to twice the length of the second pair.