725. BHUCHANGA PALAWANENSIS Whitehead.
PALAWAN GRAY DRONGO.

Balabac (Everett); Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Palawan (Steere, Everett, Lempriere, Platen, Whitehead, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Celestino, White).

Adult.-Upper parts blue-gray with a slight gloss on head and back; forehead and lores black; cheeks and ear-coverts blackish; chin and throat cinereous becoming somewhat bluer on the breast and abdomen; under tail-coverts tipped with white; wings and tail blackish brown, but the exposed edges of most of the feathers cinereous; axillars and wing-lining blue-gray. A male from Palawan measures: Length, 354; wing, 124; tail, 120; depth of fork, 26; bill from nostril, 17; tarsus, 17. A female, wing, 125; tail, 123; bill from nostril, 17; tarsus, 15.

“We adopt Whitehead’s title for this bird with some hesitation. He states that it differs from B. leucophæa in its smaller size, darker color, and in having a jet-black patch of feathers over the nostrils. He adds that the eye in B. leucophæa is brick-red, and in B. palawanensis dark gray. As regards the latter point Whitehead is certainly in error. On examining the labels of the twenty specimens collected by us in Palawan and the Calamianes Islands we find that the iris was red or brick-red in nineteen cases and reddish brown in the twentieth. The difference in color could be verified only by actual comparison for which we have not the necessary material. We add full measurements, hoping that they may be of use to some one in settling the question of the relative size of the two alleged species. Four males average: Length, 267; wing, 129; tail, 127; culmen, 26; tarsus, 17; middle toe with claw, 18.5. Eight females, length, 251; wing, 125; tail, 126; culmen, 25; tarsus, 17.5; middle toe with claw, 19. Iris brick-red; bill, legs, feet, and nails black.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.)

Family STURNIDÆ.

Bill stout and pointed; culmen curved or nearly straight; rictal bristles minute when present; nostrils exposed, or else concealed by antrorse frontal plumes; wing either moderate or long, primaries much longer than secondaries; first primary shorter than primary-coverts; second primary nearly, or quite, as long as the third; tail square, or else the rectrices graduated; tarsus stout, distinctly scutellate in front and bilaminate behind.

Subfamily STURNINÆ.

The arrangement of the genera here placed in the subfamily Sturninæ is far from satisfactory. Oates, Fauna of British India, Birds (1889), 1, 509, has established the family Eulabetidæ for the reception of two of these genera, Eulabes and Calornis (=Lamprocorax), and at the same time says: “Probably Eulabes should not be associated with Calornis, but rather with the subfamily Sibiinæ of the Crateropodidæ.” It is true that Eulabes and Calornis, as well as Sarcops and Goodfellowia, present some well-marked differences from typical starlings, such as the members of Sturnia, and some rearrangement of these genera may become necessary.