Bill slender and compressed; culmen gently curved and having a decided keel; a notch near the tip of upper mandible and, in some genera, another notch near tip of lower mandible; nostrils pierced in the anterior part of a membrane the base of which may be covered with short plumes, but the nostrils always exposed except in Irena; wing longer than tail; first primary little more than one-half the second, the latter shorter than third; fourth and fifth usually forming the tip of the wing; tail square, or slightly rounded, rarely decidedly graduate; tarsus short, nearly always less than culmen from base, and seldom greater than middle toe with claw. In some genera there are a number of hairs springing from the nape, but these are not greatly developed, except in Irena and Trichophorus.
Genera.
- a1. A tuft of long white silky feathers on each side of lower breast; primaries exceeding the secondaries by less than one-half the tarsus; colors yellow and black. Ægithina (p. [497])
- a2. No tuft of long silky feathers on
side of breast; primaries exceeding the secondaries by more than
one-half the tarsus.
- b1. Primaries exceeding the
secondaries by less than the length of tarsus.
- c1. Tail-coverts very long, nearly two-thirds as long as the tail; colors black and yellow, tail tipped with yellow. Microtarsus (p. [513])
- c2. Tail-coverts shorter, equal to
less than two-thirds of tail.
- d1. Hairs on nape short or wanting; if present, less than the tarsus in length.
- d2. Hairs on nape very long, their exposed portions longer than one-half the tarsus. Trichophorus (p. [514])
- b2. Primaries exceeding the
secondaries by more than length of tarsus.
- c1. Feathers of crown and nape rounded; hairs on nape well developed, extending beyond the feathers for more than two-thirds the length of bill from nostril; plumage entirely blue and black. Irena (p. [499])
- c2. Feathers of crown and nape pointed; hairs on nape usually shorter; plumage usually brown or gray, mottled with whitish; plumage rarely yellow.
- b1. Primaries exceeding the
secondaries by less than the length of tarsus.
Genus ÆGITHINA Vieillot, 1816.
Wings short and curved to the body; secondaries nearly as long as primaries; a large tuft of long, white, silky feathers on each side of lower breast; tarsus slightly greater than culmen from base; lower parts bright yellow; wings black, barred with white.
468. ÆGITHINA VIRIDIS (Bonaparte).
BLACK-WINGED IORA.
- Jora viridis Bonaparte, Consp. Genera Avium (1850), 1, 397.
- Ægithina viridis Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1881), 6, 11; Hand-List (1901), 3, 306; Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1903), 3, 302; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 78.
Palawan (Steere, Everett, Whitehead, Platen, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, McGregor, Celestino, White). Sumatra and Borneo.
Male.—Forehead, lores, supercilia, sides of face, and under parts golden yellow, becoming slightly paler on abdomen and tail-coverts; above yellowish green; upper tail-coverts, wings, and tail black; outer webs of inner primaries narrowly edged with pale yellow; inner webs, except that of first primary, broadly edged with white; secondaries edged with white on both webs; lesser wing-coverts black; median coverts with wide white tips forming a bar; greater coverts edged with white near their tips forming a second bar. A male from Palawan measures: Wing, 66; tail, 51; culmen from base, 18; bill from nostril, 12; tarsus, 20.