Male.—Forehead, crown, sides of head to lower border of eye, hind neck, and mantle black, glossed with green; lower back, rump, and tail-coverts white, the back grayish; entire under parts white; wings and tail black, glossed with green; inner secondaries and greater coverts with wide edges of white; inner median coverts entirely white; quills, except first primary, edged with white on inner web; two outermost pairs of rectrices tipped with white. Length, about 210. A male from Mindoro measures: Wing, 119; tail, 90; culmen from base, 21; bill from nostril, 14; tarsus, 23.
Female.—Above light ashy gray, nearly white on tail-coverts; feathers of head and mantle with dusky shaft-lines; below white; breast obscurely barred with gray; thighs gray with darker shaft-lines; wings and tail as in the male but with less white on median coverts. A female from Mindoro, wing, 112; tail, 85; culmen from base, 21; bill from nostril, 14.5; tarsus, 23.
466. LALAGE MINOR (Steere).
STEERE’S LALAGE.
- Pseudolalage minor Steere, List Birds & Mams. Steere Exped. (1890), 15.
- Lalage minor Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 103; Sharpe, Hand-List (1901), 3, 303; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 78.
Leyte (Whitehead); Mindanao (Steere Exp., Celestino); Samar (Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead).
Male.—In color exactly like the male of L. melanoleuca, but distinguished by its smaller size. Length, about 200. A male from northern Mindanao measures: Wing, 104; tail, 81; culmen from base, 21; bill from nostril, 15; tarsus, 20.
Female.—Differs from the female of L. melanoleuca in having the chin, throat, and breast plumbeous gray with somewhat obscure gray bars.
“Steere’s lalage is not very common; a pair shot in Samar had been feeding on fruit and insects. Iris dark brown; legs, feet, and nails black; upper mandible black, lower nearly so. The male measures, 197 in length; wing, 107; tail, 81; culmen, 25; tarsus, 22; middle toe with claw, 21. A female, length, 203; wing, 106; tail, 82; culmen, 26; tarsus, 24; middle toe with claw, 18.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.)