This plain-colored species appears in the Philippines during migration only and is, as a rule, very rare. At times, however, it is found in considerable numbers.
“We shot a single specimen in Palawan. Length, 190; wing, 96; tail, 100; tarsus, 17; middle toe with claw, 15. Bill, legs, feet, and nails black.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.)
Genus LALAGE Boie, 1826.
Bill moderate in length and rather slender, as deep as wide at nostril; wing decidedly longer than tail; rectrices moderately broad; tarsus strong. Plumage black, white, and gray; tail black, tipped with white; wing black with a large white patch on secondaries and on greater and median coverts.
Species.
- a1. Forehead black; no white band over eye; larger; length, about 200 mm.
- a2. Forehead and a wide band over eye white; length, about 180 mm. niger (p. [495])
465. LALAGE MELANOLEUCA (Blyth).
BLACK AND WHITE LALAGE.
- Pseudolalage melanoleuca Blyth, Jour. As. Soc. Bengal (1861), 30, 97; Walden, Trans. Zool. Soc. (1875), 9, 178, pl. 29, fig. 2.
- Lalage melanoleuca Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1879), 4, 91, 471; Hand-List (1901), 3, 303; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 103 (habits); McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 78.
Luzon (Martens, Heriot, Everett, Whitehead, Steere Exp.); Mindoro (Steere Exp., McGregor); Semirara (Worcester).[64]