A Manual of Philippine Birds. Richard C. McGregor
others wider and confluent on nape); mantle, secondaries, and greater and median wing-coverts green, changing to blue and purple, bases of the feathers black; remainder of wing brown or blackish; back and rump black, thickly marked with small, rusty buff spots; longest coverts and rectrices similar but the spots fewer and lighter and each feather with two large, round or oval spots of peacock-green, surrounded by a black ring and an outer gray ring; longest coverts tipped with a narrow line of pale buff; rectrices tipped with lines of black, gray, white, and gray, the white line narrow and sharply defined; under parts all black, except tail-coverts which are speckled with buff. “Bill black tipped with pale horn-color; eyes chocolate-brown; legs, feet, and nails brown.” (Bourns and Worcester.) A male from Iwahig, Palawan, measures: Wing, 190; tail, 240; exposed culmen, 28; bill from nostril, 15; tarsus, 66; middle toe with claw, 56.
Female.—Top of head and a short crest dark brown; sides of face, chin, and throat white; remainder of the plumage brown, more rusty above and on wings, finely speckled with dark brown and black; tail with the large round metallic spots of the male replaced by black spots having little or no metallic color. A female from Iwahig, Palawan, measures: Wing, 180; tail, 183; exposed culmen, 22; bill from nostril, 13; tarsus, 54; middle toe with claw, 48.
Young.—“An immature male resembles the female, but has tail and greater coverts like those of adult male, though the ocelli are much smaller and absent on inner webs of all the tail-feathers except three middle pairs; one or two feathers of mantle have a metallic bluish green patch in the middle and traces are apparent of black plumage on mantle, wing-coverts, throat, and under parts.” (Grant.)
This beautiful peacock pheasant, the “pavo real” of the Spaniards, is confined to the Island of Palawan. Bourns and Worcester state that the species is extremely shy, all of their specimens, including 18 adults beside young, being taken by natives in snares. They give the following average measurements: Eleven males, length, 519; wing, 180; tail, 222; culmen, 24; tarsus, 61; seven females, length, 420; wing, 166; tail, 150; culmen, 22; tarsus, 55.
Bourns and Worcester have shown that the character upon which P. nehrkornæ was based—i.e., narrow superciliary stripes not confluent on nape—is variable to a great degree and not dependent upon age, so napoleonis is accepted as the correct specific name for the Palawan bird, although originally applied to a specimen supposed to have come from Luzon, an island in which the genus certainly does not exist.
Major John R. White has secured a fine series of these birds at the Iwahig penal colony, and he states that he has seldom seen the birds until snared by the natives.
Order HEMIPODII.
BUTTON QUAILS.
Culmen curved but not hooked; nostrils opening by a slit beneath a horny scale; tarsi naked, without spurs; hind toe absent; wings short, rounded, and curved to the body; rectrices short, soft, and nearly hidden by the long fluffy coverts.
Family TURNICIDÆ.
Size small, the largest Philippine species under 200 mm. in length, the others much smaller. Birds of this family resemble Excalfactoria in general form but may be recognized by their lack of a hind toe. They are usually found in grassy plains. The flight is rapid but of short duration; the birds get up at one’s feet but seldom flush a second time. The nest is placed on the ground beneath a tuft of grass; eggs, three or four, spotted with brown.
Genus TURNIX Bonnaterre, 1790.
Characters same as those given for the Family.
Species.
a1. Breast without chestnut or rusty buff, heavily cross-barred with black. fasciata (p. 18)
a2. Breast chestnut or rusty buff, without black cross-bars.b1. Larger; wing more than 80 mm.; breast rich chestnut; chin white (♂), or black (♀), or white spotted with black (young) ocellata (p. 20)b2. Smaller; wing less than 80 mm.; breast rusty buff; chin whitish, never black nor mixed with black.c1. Bill more slender, depth at angle of gonys, 4 mm. or less.d1. Smaller; wing, 57 to 60; tarsus, 16.5 to 18 mm whiteheadi (p. 20)d2. Larger; wing, 65.5 or more; tarsus, 19 mm. or more.e1. Larger; wing, 67 mm.; upper parts lighter suluensis (p. 21)e2. Smaller; wing, 65.5 mm.; upper parts darker celestinoi (p. 22)c2. Bill stouter, depth at angle of gonys, 5.8 mm worcesteri (p. 23)
5. TURNIX FASCIATA (Temminck).
PHILIPPINE BUTTON QUAIL.
Hemipodius fasciatus Temminck, Pig. et Gall. (1815), 3, 634, 757.
Turnix fasciata Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1893), 22, 535; Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 48; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1901), 1, 70; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 8.
Turnix nigrescens Tweeddale, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1877), 765.
Turnix haynaldi Blasius, Ornis (1888), 4, 317.
Pu-gong daan, Manila; tic-ti′-co, Calapan, Mindoro.
Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester); Cebu (Everett, Bourns & Worcester); Luzon (Everett, Heriot, Whitehead, McGregor, Mearns); Masbate (Bourns & Worcester); Mindoro (McGregor, Porter); Negros (Steere Exp.); Palawan (Whitehead, Platen, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, White); Panay (Bourns & Worcester); Sibuyan (Bourns & Worcester).
Adult male.—Above blackish brown; feathers of back largely black with white or buff margins; in some specimens the margins largely rufous; chin and throat white; breast and sides light buff with clear-cut, subterminal, black cross-bars; abdomen and belly dirty white; flanks and under tail-coverts washed with buff; quills blackish brown, first three or four narrowly edged with pale buff or white; first alula-quill widely edged with pale buff or white; coverts light buff, more or fewer with strong cross-bars. Bill black, yellow at base; legs pale greenish yellow. Length, 140. Three males measure: Wing, 68 to 76; tail, 23 to 28; culmen, 12 to 13; tarsus, 21 to 22; middle toe with claw, 18 to 19.5.
Adult female.—Like the adult male but larger; chin and throat black; hind neck and sides of neck decorated with a collar of rich chestnut. Iris white; bill yellow, slightly greenish toward tip; legs greenish; nails flesh-colored. Length, 160. Three females measure: Wing, 72 to 81; tail, 29 to 30.5; culmen, 13 to 14; tarsus, 23 to 25; middle toe with claw, 20 to 23.
Young.—Immature birds of both sexes resemble the adult male but the bars of breast are reduced to spots or to irregular V-shaped bars; above more uniform, dull rusty brown and edges of feathers more or less rusty; wing-coverts blackish brown, notched with white.
There is much variation in the color of the upper parts due to wear; birds in fresh plumage (February, Manila) are largely chestnut above and males may have a narrow chestnut collar; the rich color fades and the feathers become abraded very rapidly. A male (March 17, Tarlac) shows scarcely any chestnut and that of a faded hue. The species is easily recognized in any plumage by the black bars (spots in young) on breast.
Eggs.—“The eggs of the Philippine bustard quail are grayish white, densely covered with specks and dots of yellowish brown and small blotches of pale purple. The three examples in the collection [collected by the Steere Expedition in Negros, November 10], are very broad ovals and measure respectively: 28.4 by 21.3; 27 by 21.3; 26 by 21.3.” (Oates.)
A