A Manual of Philippine Birds

by Richard C. McGregor

Genus CINNYRIS Cuvier, 1817.

Bill and head about equal in length; tail moderately long, nearly square, and extending beyond the folded wings; nasal opercles covered with short feathers. Males with chin, throat, and fore breast usually metallic colored, or at least of a different color from the lower breast and abdomen; females with no metallic colors and the under parts light yellow or green.

Species.

• a¹. Chin, throat, and fore breast black or metallic colored, very distinct from the color of lower breast and abdomen (males).
  • b¹. Breast bright red.
    • c¹. Mantle maroon-red sperata (p. [652])
    • c². Mantle velvety black henkei (p. [653])
  • b². Breast and abdomen yellow, or orange and yellow.
    • c¹. Metallic color on under surface confined to chin and middle of fore throat.
      • d¹. Forehead metallic steel-green; crown and nape yellowish olive-green. flagrans (p. [654])
      • d². Forehead dark metallic purple; crown and nape dull red. guimarasensis (p. [655])
    • c². Metallic color of under surface covering entire chin, throat, and fore breast.
      • d¹. Tail not tipped with white; forehead and crown metallic green; mantle maroon-red; entire chin and throat metallic purple juliæ (p. [654])
      • d². Tail with a broad white tip; forehead and all the upper parts dull green; chin, throat, and fore breast metallic bluish black.
• a². Chin, throat, and breast yellow or greenish, never metallic, and not very different in color from the abdomen (females).[86]
  • b¹. Light tip of tail gray, about 6 mm. in length on outermost pair of rectrices; general color of under parts apple-green.
    • c¹. Primaries and secondaries edged with dull orange-rufous. sperata (p. [652]) henkei (p. [653])
    • c². Primaries, secondaries, and greater coverts edged with light claret-brown, this color extending faintly across the back juliæ (p. [654])
  • b². Light tip of tail white, about 10 mm. in length on outermost pair of rectrices; general color of under parts gamboge-yellow. jugularis (p. [656]) aurora (p. [658])

664. CINNYRIS SPERATA (Linnæus).

RED-BREASTED SUNBIRD.

• Certhia sperata Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 12 (1766), 1, 186.
• Cinnyris speratus Shelley, Monogr. Nectarin. pt. 4 (1877), 131, pl. 43.
• Cinnyris sperata Gadow, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1884), 9, 63; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 230; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 99.

Siete colores, Spanish name in general use.

Basiao, off Samar (Bartsch); Bohol (McGregor); Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Cebu (Bourns & Worcester); Dinagat (Everett); Guimaras (Steere, Steere Exp.); Leyte (Steere Exp., Whitehead); Lubang (McGregor); Luzon (Meyer, Whitehead, McGregor); Marinduque (Steere Exp.); Masbate (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Mindanao (Everett, Koch & Schadenberg, Celestino); Mindoro (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Everett, McGregor); Negros (Steere, Everett, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Keay); Nipa (Everett); Palawan (Everett, Platen, Whitehead, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, White); Panay (Bourns & Worcester); Polillo (McGregor); Romblon (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Samar (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead, Bartsch); Sibuyan (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Siquijor (Bourns & Worcester, Celestino); Tablas (Bourns & Worcester, Celestino); Ticao (McGregor).

Male.—Held away from the light top of head and hind neck reddish bronze, lower back, rump, and tail-coverts metallic green and amethystine; held toward the light, head and neck change to bronze-green; back, rump, and tail-coverts change to steel-green; lores, cheeks, and ear-coverts dull black; mantle, sides of neck, and wing-coverts dark maroon-red; chin, throat, and chest metallic violet away from the light, changing to purple when held toward the light; breast poppy-red; abdomen, thighs, flanks, and crissum olive-green; the last washed with red in some specimens; wing-feathers blackish, edged with maroon, a small metallic colored patch at carpal joint; rectrices blackish, edged with metallic violet and green. Iris brown; bill, legs, and nails black. A male from Masbate measures: Length, 102; wing, 50; tail, 29; culmen from base, 16; bill from nostril, 14; tarsus, 12.