Claw of hind toe shorter than that of third toe; two toes united for their basal joint; or, if toes are free, then the feet small and weak and gape deeply cleft. Toes usually three in front, one behind; in some, two in front and one behind; rarely, four in front and in pairs. Bill large and with a horny crest, often bright red in color, when not red the surface more or less sculptured (Bucerotes); or, bill long, straight, tapering, and sharp, usually red or black (Halcyones); or, bill slender and gently curved, tail long (Meropes); or, bill stout, gape wide (Coraciæ and Podargi); or, bill minute and weak, gape wide and deeply cleft (Caprimulgi and Micropodii). This order is an extremely unsatisfactory one as its members have few external characters of ordinal value. The suborders Caprimulgi and Micropodii seem to be particularly out of place.
Bill very broad and flat; ten tail-feathers; middle toe-nail not pectinate; plumage mottled.
Bill extremely broad and short; culmen strongly curved; nostrils covered by long hair-like plumes; eyes rather large; a bunch of elongated feathers behind each eye; tarsus short, feet weak; outer and middle toes united for half of their basal joint; tail moderately long, outermost rectrices very short, the next pair considerably shorter than third; plumage lax, in color reddish brown, buff, or gray, with spots of white or creamy fawn, barred and vermiculated with blackish brown. Birds of this genus fly at night feeding upon insects and remain concealed in dense forest during the day. Their capture is extremely uncertain and difficult. The nest is a small pad-like structure saddled on a branch of a tree; the single egg is white.
Basilan (Celestino); Mindanao (Murray, Everett, Koch & Schadenberg, Bourns & Worcester, Goodfellow, Celestino).
Male.—General color rufous-brown; wings and upper parts chestnut-rufous mixed with fine lines of lighter brown and blackish brown, taking the form of obsolete bars on rectrices; a narrow white band across mantle, bordered on each side with blackish brown; outer webs of scapulars whitish, each feather with a black spot near its tip; a wide creamy band across the fore breast, each feather tipped and double barred with narrow lines of blackish brown, the double bars concealed; another light band about 30 mm. posterior to this with blackish tips but without the double bars; crissum buffy; primaries and secondaries blackish, mixed with chestnut-rufous on outer webs; primary-coverts nearly totally black, each of the secondary-coverts with a large white spot at tip, preceded by a smaller black spot; axillars buff. A male from Basilan measures: Wing, 160; tail, 121; culmen from base, 29; width of bill at gape, 41; tarsus, 16.
Female.—Similar to the male but colors less rufescent; white collar less sharply defined and the light webs of scapulars washed with rufous. A female from Basilan measures: Wing, 150; tail, 114; culmen from base, 27; width of bill at gape, 38; tarsus, 14.
This species is easily distinguished from B. javensis by its larger size and comparatively much shorter tail, and by the sexes being similar in their general coloration.
Luzon (Whitehead, McGregor).
“Adult male in very dark plumage.—Crown brownish black marked and mottled with buff, nuchal band of the same color; mantle and back very similar to the crown, but with more buff finely intermixed; scapulars mostly clear buff, with mottled black barrings on the inner webs and a black subterminal spot; wing-coverts black mottled with rufous, most of the median and greater with a whitish spot at the extremity of the outer web; sides of head, chin, and throat finely mottled and barred with black and buff, darker on the hinder cheek; bands above and below the chest whitish, edged with black; chest whitish buff, finely mottled with black; belly rather paler and more coarsely marked.
“Adult female.—General color uniform chestnut, with scarcely a trace of any black markings except on the secondary quills; in other respects very similar in plumage to the female of B. septimus. The outer webs of the scapulars rufous-buff, each with a small subterminal black spot; greater and median wing-coverts with a terminal white spot on the outer web, edged internally with black; nuchal and pectoral bands white, edged with black.” (Grant.)
Another male specimen was taken by Whitehead near Cape Engaño, northern Luzon. “It is an interesting specimen in the chestnut phase of plumage, the upper parts being like those of the female type described [above], but the outer webs of the scapulars are pale buff, as in the dark-colored male type, though the subterminal black spots are small, as in the female. The feathers of the throat and of the chest between the white bands are paler chestnut than in the female, and have white middles irregularly edged and barred with black; belly, flanks, and under tail-coverts brownish white, with a few faint reddish brown mottlings.
“As will be seen, the length and width of the culmen are slightly greater than in the types. There can not be the slightest doubt that these three differently plumaged birds all belong to one species, though Mr. Whitehead was inclined to believe that the dark and rufous forms represented distinct species.” (Grant.)
Grant’s measurements of the three specimens described above, reduced to millimeters, are as follows: Male and female from Lepanto: Wing, 127 to 132; tail, 99 to 102; tarsus, 17 to 18; length of culmen, 19; width at gape, 29. Male from Cape Engaño: Wing, 131; tail, 104; tarsus, 18; length of culmen, 22; width of gape, 32.
In a female from Irisan, Benguet Province, the iris was pale yellowish; bill light horn-brown, basal half of cutting edge dull pea-green; inside of mouth brighter pea-green; legs and nails dirty white; edge of eyelids brown. Wing, 132; tail, 104; culmen from base, 20; width of bill at gape, 30; tarsus, 17.
Cow-cow, Negros.
Negros (Keay); Panay (Bourns & Worcester).
“Adult male.—Top of head rich dark-brown, slightly washed with black; feathers of forehead buff, tipped with fulvous brown, forming a distinct buff stripe reaching back to the eye; feathers of crown lighter fulvous with spots of rufous-brown on the edges, each spot being surrounded with black; some of the feathers tipped with rufous, and having black subterminal bands; occiput and nape with less black; elongated auriculars tawny-buff, with black spots and bars, the tips being black; sides of face tawny-buff streaked with black, lighter below; a distinct buffy white nuchal collar formed by white subterminal bars on feathers of neck, the bases of which are dark buff thickly vermiculated with black; their tips are black, and a black band intervenes between the white subterminal band and the buffy bases of the feathers; feathers of back dark brown, thickly vermiculated with black; feathers of rump fulvous-brown, spotted with black and reddish brown toward their tips, these colors assuming the form of irregular bands on upper tail-coverts; a few of the shorter scapulars almost black with irregular bars of dark rufous-brown; outer webs of longer scapulars light buff, the two outermost feathers entirely of this color; the next scapulars have inner webs thickly vermiculated with black; inner and longest scapulars have both webs marked in this manner, their inner webs being the darker; last of the longer scapulars with an irregular terminal spot of black; lesser wing-coverts nearly black, tipped with chocolate-brown; bases of primary-coverts fulvous brown, their outer webs heavily spotted with rufous-brown, inner webs less so, and a subterminal bar of black crossing entire outer web and half of inner web, all the feathers tipped with prominent spots of creamy white; secondary-coverts like primary-coverts but the black bar and white spot confined to outer web; primaries fulvous-brown when held toward light, changing to smoky brown when held away from light; outer webs spotted with buffy white throughout their entire length, the spots being much lighter on the second and third primaries; tips of feathers mottled with rufous-brown; general color of secondaries same as primaries, their outer webs and tips being spotted with rufous-brown and these spots in turn being speckled with fulvous-brown; inner three secondaries speckled with fulvous-brown, rufous-brown, and creamy white, each feather with a terminal spot of fulvous; general color of tail rufous-brown, distinctly barred with lighter rufous-brown, each of these bars succeeded by a narrow irregular bar of black, the entire feather thickly speckled with black and each feather having a small black terminal spot; throat and fore breast like sides of face; a buffy white pectoral band continuous with nuchal collar and succeeded by a second creamy white band, the feathers between the two bands being brown, thickly vermiculated with black and creamy white; abdomen lighter; flanks and under tail-coverts ashy, slightly tinged with pinkish, some of the feathers with dark black shaft-stripes, others with small terminal spots of black; under surface of tail much like coverts, the black markings of upper surface showing only faintly; shafts of tail-feathers creamy white; under wing-coverts fulvous-brown, tipped with white; axillars white. Eyes pale yellow; legs, feet, and nails nearly white; upper mandible brown, lower dirty green. Culmen, 27; wing, 139; tail, 105; tarsus, 15.
“Food, beetles. Native name ‘cow-cow.’ The single specimen obtained is a fully adult male; its rich and complicated markings are very difficult to describe. We have named it in honor of Mr. Menage.” (Bourns and Worcester.)
Female.—“Head and hind neck a fine mixture of black and fulvous, the feathers terminally barred with broader bands of these tints, producing a spotted appearance; an indistinct buff band from the forehead over the eye; elongated auriculars fulvous, banded and tipped with black; nuchal collar banded with buff, fulvous, and black; mantle and lower back reddish brown, closely vermiculated with black and darker than the head; upper tail-coverts similar, but more coarsely vermiculated; scapulars plain cinnamon on the outer webs, vermiculated with black on the inner webs, each feather with a subapical spot of black; wing-coverts like the back; some of the feathers with conspicuous apical spots of white; primary-coverts chiefly black; primaries cinnamon, barred with dusky on the outer webs, dusky on the inner webs; secondaries cinnamon, irregularly barred and mottled with black on the outer webs, dusky in the center and on the inner webs; tertials cinnamon, vermiculated with black; tail cinnamon-rufous, with transverse bands of a dark tint, which are narrowly margined with black; chin, throat, and breast tawny, finely banded with black, the concealed portions of the feathers of the upper breast being white, subterminally and mesially banded with black; feathers of the lower breast and abdomen chiefly whitish, margined with tawny slightly vermiculated with dusky; thighs and under tail-coverts buff. Wing, 140; tail, 106; tarsus, 18; culmen, 25.” (Clarke.)
There can be little doubt that the specimen described above is really the female of B. menagei. Birds of this genus are so complex in colors and so scarce in collections that it is very difficult to arrive at a satisfactory understanding of their plumages and relationships.
Palawan (Whitehead, Everett, Steere Exp.). Borneo, Java, and Sumatra.
“Rufous phase.—Deep reddish brown, with numerous fine black vermiculations; an indistinct white band across the neck, and large white spots on the scapulars; under surface deep reddish brown below, with a broad pure white band across the upper breast, the feathers of this part being white with dark terminal cross-bars, one distinct and one generally obsolete, the bases being dark. Many feathers of the breast have very large central spots of white, margined with a black line; abdomen mingled with blackish, brownish, and a good deal of isabelline.
“Brown phase.—Above dark brown, with many pale bars and vermiculations; a broad distinct band of whitish across the hind neck and much white on the scapulars; a good deal of creamy white on the lower surface.
“Blackish phase.—Several specimens from Borneo are black or blackish in color, the vermiculations white or whitish.
“The reddish specimens are probably females, the brown and the black ones being probably males in different phases or perhaps representing different ages.
“The size of all is about the same, the total length being about 229 to 254; wing, 135; tail, 132; tarsus, 14; culmen, 20; width of gape, 33 to 35.
“The specimens described above are all from Borneo. Two females in the British Museum from Sumatra, in reddish plumage, are lighter than those from Borneo, being rather of a cinnamon-rufous color. The patches on the lower throat are cream-colored, with a cinnamon-rufous border and a blackish subterminal bar, but without any further blackish bars.
“These differences, however, seem to me not constant after comparing the material in the Leyden Museum; nevertheless, I have not yet heard of any blackish specimens from Sumatra, and it must therefore be left open to question at present whether it is possible to separate the Sumatran and Bornean specimens specifically or subspecifically.” (Hartert.)
Palawan (Everett, White). Malay Peninsula, southern Tenasserim, Borneo, Sumatra.
Adult.—In plumage somewhat similar to B. javensis, but of smaller size. Hartert gives the measurements of the male as follows: “Length, about 216; wing, 114; tarsus, 13; width of gape, 25 to 30; culmen, 18 to 20.”
Female.—A specimen recently collected in Palawan by White resembles the brown phase of B. javensis as described under that species. The specimen was taken near Iwahig on July 10, 1908, with its nest and two small nestlings. The adult bird measures: Wing, 115; tail, 113; culmen from base, 20; width of gape, 33; tarsus, 15.
Bill broad and slightly depressed; twelve tail-feathers; pectination of middle claw not comb-like; plumage not mottled, colors gaudy.
Bill short and broad; width of gape about equal to culmen; no rictal bristles and the bristles about bill very short; tail square.
Lo-ro in′-chic, Manila; lan-gac, Cagayancillo; ta-ga-tac, Calayan; Sa-lac-sá-can, Ticao.
Bantayan (McGregor); Basilan (Everett, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Bohol (McGregor); Cagayancillo (McGregor); Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester); Calayan (McGregor); Camiguin N. (McGregor); Cebu (Everett, Bourns & Worcester); Cuyo (Meyer); Dinagat (Everett); Fuga (McGregor); Guimaras (Meyer, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Leyte (Steere Exp., Everett, Whitehead); Libagao (Porter); Luzon (Meyer, Everett, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead, McGregor); Maestre de Campo (McGregor & Worcester); Marinduque (Steere Exp.); Masbate (Steere Exp., McGregor); Mindanao (Steere, Murray, Everett, Koch & Schadenberg, Steere Exp., Goodfellow, Celestino), Mindoro (Steere Exp., Schmacker, Everett, Bourns & Worcester, McGregor, Porter); Negros (Steere, Layard, Everett, Steere Exp., Whitehead, Keay); Palawan (Everett, Platen, Whitehead, Bourns & Worcester, White); Panaon (Everett); Panay (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Romblon (Bourns & Worcester); Samar (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead); Sibutu (Everett); Sibuyan (Bourns & Worcester); Siquijor (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Sulu (Guillemard, Bourns & Worcester); Tablas (Bourns & Worcester); Tawi Tawi (Bourns & Worcester); Ticao (McGregor); Verde (McGregor). Malay Peninsula, Burmese provinces, Cachar, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Andamans, and Nicobars.
Adult.—Forehead, crown, and sides of face black becoming dark brown on occiput, neck, ear-coverts, and sides of neck; back, rump, tail-coverts, scapulars, inner secondaries, and secondary-coverts brown, washed with dull oily green; chin black with a small white spot in the center; throat deep purplish blue with bright blue mesial streaks; remainder of under parts greenish blue, becoming more intense on crissum; primaries, outer secondaries, and rectrices glossy black, marked more or less on both webs with deep purplish blue; a wide band of light blue across middle of primaries; alula and primary-coverts black, edged with deep purplish blue. Bill and legs bright red; nails and tip of bill black. Length of a male, 280; wing, 180; tail, 96; culmen from base, 33; tarsus, 17. Length of a female, 266; wing, 190; tail, 104; culmen from base, 34; middle toe with claw, 29.
“Young.—Differs from the adult in being duller in color and in having a black bill, and in wanting the bright blue patch on the throat, which is greenish, a little duller than the abdomen.” (Sharpe.)
“Sixteen specimens measure as follows: Length, 352; wing, 181; tail, 109; culmen, 24; tarsus, 17; middle toe with claw, 26. Usually seen perching on some dead limb from which it flies in pursuit of insects, soon returning to its perch. Often seen flying about actively just after dark, like a night hawk.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.)
This roller is easily identified by its gaudy plumage, bright red bill, and peculiar jerky flight; there is no other Philippine species resembling it.