STEERE’S BULLFINCH.
- Pyrrhula steerei Mearns, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. (1909), 36, 445.
Mindanao (Mearns).
“Characters.—Similar to Pyrrhula leucogenys Grant, from the mountains of Lepanto in northern Luzon. The Mindanao bird differs in being smaller, with a differently colored, much smaller bill, more brownish coloration, and a tendency to whitening on the middle of the abdomen, which the Luzon bird lacks.
“Adult male (type, killed July 9).—Crown and front of head all round, to just behind eye, black; crown glossed with purplish blue; lores, malar region, chin, and upper throat dead black; auriculars white; scapulars and interscapular region deep broccoli-brown; rump white; rectrices, upper tail-coverts, primaries, secondaries, tertials, primary-coverts, and base of greater wing-coverts, glossy bluish black; lesser wing-coverts dark broccoli-brown; terminal two-fifths of greater wing-coverts broccoli-brown, paler terminally; outer web of innermost secondary edged externally with orange-vermilion; under parts broccoli-brown, shading to whitish on middle of belly and to tawny ochraceous on crissum; axillars pure white; under wing-coverts brown at base, broadly white terminally; underside of shafts of primary-quills white nearly to the tips. Fresh specimens, including the type, were noted in the field as having the iris dark brown; bill plumbeous-black, perceptibly horn-color at extreme base; feet brownish flesh-color, with underside of toes yellowish; claws brown. In the dry skins the bills are uniformly plumbeous-black.
“Adult female * * *. Exactly like the male, except that the outer web of the innermost secondary is edged externally with yellowish orange instead of orange-vermilion.” (Mearns.)
Genus FRINGILLA Linnæus, 1758.
Bill moderately stout; culmen flat, without a ridge, and straight except at its extreme tip; wings long, extending beyond the toes and nearly to the tip of the slightly forked tail; colors black, white, and orange-buff.