“Coloration.—Forehead, crown, nape, and sides of neck black, the forehead streaked with white; lores, ear-coverts, and round the eye white, streaked with black; chin and throat dark ashy brown with paler and indistinct shaft-streaks; breast ashy, slightly paler than throat; sides of the body and thighs rufous ashy; abdomen and under tail-coverts white; back, scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts drab-brown with a broad white bar across the rump; tail drab-brown with broad white tips to all the inner webs of the feathers except the middle pair; wing-coverts and tertials bronzy brown; remainder of wing blackish, the primaries narrowly, the secondaries more broadly, margined with white on the outer webs; under wing-coverts and axillars white, a few feathers of the former partially margined with brown.
“The youngest bird I have seen has the whole plumage russet-brown, the inner webs of the tail-feathers tipped with white, the quills of the wing edged with paler brown; the ear-coverts whitish; the chin nearly pure white.
“Between this young bird and the adult above described there is every possible gradation of plumage. The nestling is probably streaked below.
“‘Iris brown surrounded by white; bill orange; the tip horny; the base of the lower mandible and the angle of the mantle brownish green; legs yellow.’ (David and Oustalet.) Length, about 229; tail, 71; wing, 132; tarsus, 32; bill from gape, 33.” (Oates.)
The gray starling is known as a member of the Philippine ornis from a single specimen collected in northern Luzon by Doctor Mearns. This specimen has the chin, throat, and crest mottled with white and there is much white on the forehead and sides of head.
Genus LAMPROCORAX Bonaparte, 1853.
Bill stout, strongly compressed except toward base; culmen strongly curved throughout; gonys straight; feathers on nasal membrane short and pile-like; feathers of head, face, and throat lanceolate; tail moderate in length; rectrices narrow and graduated, their tips rounded; plumage entirely glossy black.
Species.
- a1. Larger; wing, 105 mm.; tail, 75. panayensis (p. [715])
- a2. Smaller; wing, 95 mm.; tail, 59. todayensis (p. [716])