A Manual of Philippine Birds

by Richard C. McGregor

Species.

• a¹. Outer tail-feathers not tipped with white.
  • b¹. Under parts heavily streaked with black. striatus (p. [527])
  • b². Under parts not heavily streaked with black.
    • c¹. Larger; wing, 60 mm. or more; forehead and sides of head chestnut; crown gray; under parts light yellow. whiteheadi (p. [528])
    • c². Smaller; wing, 56 mm. or less; forehead and sides of face not chestnut; under parts white.
      • d¹. Forehead and crown brown with pale shaft-stripes; upper parts olive-brown with indistinct pale shafts; throat and chest gray with white shaft-stripes; rest of under parts white. pygmæus (p. [529])
      • d². Head, neck, and breast reddish brown with white shaft-stripes. plateni (p. [530])
• a². Outer tail-feathers widely tipped with white.
  • b¹. Forehead, crown, chin, and throat not uniform in color.
    • c¹. Forehead and crown red-brown or auburn. capitalis (p. [530])
    • c². Forehead and crown black.
      • d¹. Chin and throat lemon-yellow with a patch of dull reddish brown on each side. nigrocapitatus (p. [531])
      • d². Chin and throat lemon-yellow, washed with reddish brown. affinis (p. [532])
  • b². Forehead, crown, chin, and throat golden yellow; back and under parts washed with lighter yellow. dennistouni (p. [529])

505. ZOSTERORNIS STRIATUS Grant.

STRIPED TREE BABBLER.

• Zosterornis striatus Grant, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1894), 4, 2; Ibis (1895), 111, pl. 4, fig. 1; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 222 (habits).
• Zosterornis striata Sharpe, Hand-List (1903), 4, 51; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 82.

Luzon (Whitehead).

“Male and female adult.—In general appearance this new species resembles Mixornis montana Sharpe, from Mount Kina Balu, but it is readily recognizable as forming a second species of the genus Zosterornis by the shape of the nostrils and the peculiar ring of white feathers which surrounds the eye, as well as the absence of rufous-brown or dark chestnut on the wings so characteristic of the genus Mixornis.

“The general color of the upper parts is dull olive, tinged with brownish on the upper tail-coverts: quills dark brown, edged on the outer web with olive, and on the inner with yellowish white. A marked ring of white plumes surrounds the eye; lores and fore part of cheeks whitish, tinged with yellow; a well-marked black eyebrow stripe from the nostril to the posterior margin of the orbit, and a second less distinct band below the eye; hind cheek and ear-coverts dull olive like the crown; chin and throat uniform white, tinged with yellow and bordered on either side by a black malar stripe; rest of the under parts yellowish white, each feather with a wide black shaft-stripe; tail-feathers brown, margined with olive towards the edges of the outer webs.

“Types of the species.—Male adult: Length, 140; wing, 60; tail, 52; tarsus, 18; culmen, 16. Female adult: Length, 140; wing, 61; tail, 52; tarsus, 18; culmen, 16.” (Grant.)

The striped tree babbler is known only from the mountains of northern Luzon.