A Manual of Philippine Birds

by Richard C. McGregor

• a¹. Crissum and tips of rectrices black or gray; no white wing-band.
  • b¹. Plumage nearly uniform glossy black or blackish gray (males).
    • c¹. Plumage entirely glossy black.
      • d¹. Back glossed with blue cærulescens (p. [486])
      • d². Back slightly glossed with green alterum (p. [487])
    • c². Plumage nearly uniform blackish or dark gray (females).
      • d¹. Darker; under parts uniform dull smoke-gray cærulescens (p. [486])
      • d². Lighter; under parts uniform slate-gray alterum (p. [487])
  • b². Plumage not entirely uniform in color; wings-and tail mostly black; under parts mostly light gray.
    • c¹. Band across forehead, lores, sides of face, and throat black (males).
      • d¹. Rump and upper tail-coverts whitish gray, much paler than the back. mindanense (p. [488])
      • d². Rump and upper tail-coverts gray, uniform in color with the back.
    • c². Entire head and throat gray, uniform with back and breast (females).
      • d¹. Rump and upper tail-coverts whitish gray, much paler than the back. mindanense (p. [488])
      • d². Rump and upper tail-coverts gray, uniform in color with the back.
• a². Crissum, tips of rectrices, and wing-band pure white.
  • b¹. Forehead, lores, cheeks, throat, and breast black, slightly glossed with greenish (male) panayense (p. [487])
  • b². Entire head, throat, and breast gray like back and abdomen (female). panayense (p. [487])

453. EDOLISOMA CÆRULESCENS (Blyth).

LUZON CUCKOO SHRIKE.

• Ceblepyris cærulescens Blyth, Jour. As. Soc. Bengal (1842), 11, 463.
• Volvocivora (?) cærulescens Walden, Trans. Zool. Soc. (1875), 9, 178, pl. 30, fig. 2.
• Edoliisoma cærulescens Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1879), 4, 44; Hand-List (1901), 3, 294; Grant and Whitehead, Ibis (1898), 235, pl. 6, fig. 3 (egg); Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 102 (habits); Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1903), 3, 295; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 77.

Luzon (Meyer, Everett, Möllendorff, Whitehead, Steere Exp., McGregor).

Male.—Entire plumage black; head, neck, back, and under parts slightly glossed with blue; wings very faintly glossed with dark green. Iris dark; bill, legs, and nails black. Length, about 260; measurements of four males, wing, 127 to 136; tail, 109 to 127; bill from nostril, 18 to 20; depth of bill at angle of gonys, 8.1 to 8.4.

Female.—Under parts uniform dull smoke-gray; above darker and nearly black; upper tail-coverts edged with smoke-gray; wings and tail black, slightly glossed with green. Wing, 125; tail, 115; culmen from base, 23; bill from nostril, 18; tarsus, 21.

The single egg secured by Whitehead in Benguet Province, Luzon, March 14, 1894, was taken from the bird. The egg is thus described:

“Shape ovate. Ground-color pale blue, spotted and dotted over the entire shell. Under-markings gray and grayish lilac; over-markings dark brown. Measurements 29 mm. by 21 mm.” (Grant and Whitehead.)

454. EDOLISOMA ALTERUM Ramsay.