Luzon (Whitehead).
“Adult male and female.—Forehead and crown shining golden yellow, shading into yellowish gray on the back and sides of the head and neck, and greenish gray on the back and rest of the upper parts, all the feathers with narrow whitish shaft-stripes; wings dark brown, the quills margined with yellowish brown; chin and throat golden yellow, but paler than the crown, and shading into whitish yellow on the breast and rest of under parts; sides and flanks washed with greenish gray; tail-feathers brownish black, margined on the outer webs with yellowish brown, the five outer pairs tipped with white, the tips increasing in width towards the outer pair, which has also the greater part of the outer web white.
“Immature birds resemble the adult, but the golden yellow forehead is represented by yellowish brown feathers with pale middles, the quills are edged with rufous, and the under parts are white slightly tinged with yellow.” (Grant.)
Grant’s measurements of the types, converted to millimeters, are: Male, length, 140; wing, 68; tail, 61; culmen, 18; tarsus, 19; female, length, 135; wing, 66; tail, 56; culmen, 18; tarsus, 19.
The yellow tree babbler is resident in the vicinity of Cape Engaño, northern Luzon.
508. ZOSTERORNIS PYGMÆUS Grant.
PYGMY TREE BABBLER.
- Mixornis plateni Bourns and Worcester, Minnesota Acad. Nat. Sci. Occ. Papers (1894), 1, 58, (not of Blasius).
- Zosterornis pygmæus Grant, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1896), 6, 18; Ibis (1897), 233, pl. 6, fig. 1; Whitehead, Ibis, (1899), 223 (habits).
- Zosterornis pygmæa Sharpe, Hand-List (1903), 4, 51; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 82.
Leyte (Whitehead); Samar (Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead).
“Adult male and female.—General color above brownish olive, brownest on the crown, each feather of which has a narrow whitish shaft-stripe; lores whitish; feathers above and below the eye blackish with white shafts; chin whitish; throat, fore neck, and chest gray with white middles to the feathers, most marked on the throat; breast and belly white, shading into grayish on the sides, flanks, and under tail-coverts. ‘Iris bicolored, outer ring red, inner pale yellow; bill slate-blue, black at tip; feet slate-gray.’ (Whitehead.) Length, 102; culmen, 13; wing, 53; tail, 39; tarsus, 16.5.” (Grant.)