Bill slender; culmen from base nearly equal to hind toe with claw; wing long and pointed; first primary more than one-half second and longer than tarsus; tail rounded, about three-fourths as long as wing. Throat white or bright red.
540. CALLIOPE CALLIOPE (Pallas).
SIBERIAN RUBYTHROAT.
- Motacilla calliope Pallas, Reise Russ. Reichs (1776), 3, 697.
- Erithacus calliope Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1881), 5, 305.
- Calliope camtschatkensis Oates, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1890), 2, 102, fig. 29 (head); Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 214 (habits).
- Calliope calliope Sharpe, Hand-List (1903), 4, 155; Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1905), 4, 149; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1900), 85.
Pi-lóy, Manila.
Calayan (McGregor); Luzon (Everett, Whitehead, McGregor); Masbate (Bourns & Worcester); Mindoro (Whitehead); Negros (Whitehead). Siberia and northern China; in winter to southern China, Burmese Provinces, northern and central India; accidental in Europe.
Male.—Above olive-brown, at times more or less ashy; line over lores and over eye white; lores and line under eye black, below this a broader white line; base of jaw black; chin and throat-patch bright strawberry-red surrounded by a narrow line of black; chest ashy gray; middle of breast and abdomen white; sides of abdomen and flanks light buff-brown; tail-coverts white, washed with buff. Iris brown; bill dusky brown, nearly black with its base whitish; legs and nails dark flesh-color. Length, about 160 mm. A male from Calayan measures: Wing, 80; tail, 64; culmen from base, 15; bill from nostril, 9; tarsus, 30; middle toe with claw, 24.
Female.—Differs from the male in having black lines on sides of head and throat replaced by brown; loral feathers with brown tips; throat-patch white; no ashy gray on breast. A female from Calayan measures: Wing, 78; tail, 63; culmen from base, 15; bill from nostril, 10; tarsus, 29.
“Birds of the year have the brown of both the upper and under parts more ochraceous, and the male resembles the female, except in having traces of red on the throat. Young in first plumage appear to be unknown.” (Seebohm.)