Genus PIPRISOMA Blyth, 1844.
Bill very short and stout, its greatest width considerably more than bill from nostril; gonys strongly convex; wing long and pointed; first (outermost) primary wanting; second, third, and fourth primaries subequal and longest; tail extending beyond the end of middle toe. Upper parts light brown; breast and abdomen white, streaked with brown.
651. PIPRISOMA ÆRUGINOSUM (Bourns and Worcester).
RUSTY FLOWERPECKER.
- Prionochilus æruginosus Bourns and Worcester, Minnesota Acad. Nat. Sci. Occ. Papers (1894), 1, 20.
- Piprisoma æruginosum Grant, Ibis (1895), 454; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 235; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 98.
Cebu (Bourns & Worcester); Lubang (McGregor); Luzon (Whitehead, McGregor); Mindanao (Bourns & Worcester); Mindoro (Everett); Romblon (McGregor); Sibuyan (McGregor).
Adult (sexes alike).—Above dark hair-brown, faintly washed with olive; rump and tail-coverts olivaceous; wing-feathers and rectrices blackish brown, edged with olivaceous; two outer pairs of rectrices tipped with white on inner webs; lores whitish; white malar line separated from throat by a hair-brown line; under parts white; breast, sides of throat and of abdomen, and flanks boldly streaked with hair-brown; under tail-coverts white with median, basal, brown markings. A male from Luzon measures: Wing, 66; tail, 37; culmen from base, 9; bill from nostril, 6; greatest width of bill, 6; tarsus, 14. A female from Luzon, wing, 60; tail, 33; culmen from base, 10; bill from nostril, 6; tarsus, 13.
Young.—Similar to the adult but the upper parts darker and clearer brown; stripes on under parts indefinite and almost obsolete; the whole plumage is gray rather than brown.
“Found in the forest only. Iris brick-red; legs, feet, and nails nearly black; upper mandible brown, lower gray.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.)