Part 106

Molt.--Most of the adult specimens taken by Coultas in November and December, 1931, are in molting plumage.

Remarks.--Coultas (field notes) writes that the starling is a common bird at Ponapé. He found it in flocks of from two to 12 or more birds. As at Kusaie he noted more birds in the immature plumage than in the adult plumage at Ponapé. The starling occurs in large numbers even though the people of the island hunt this bird persistently for part of their food supply.

The Micronesian Starling at Palau has the longest wing of any of the subspecies of Aplonis opacus. It most closely resembles A. o. opacus; both of these subspecies have only a faint amount of bronzy-green luster of the feathers, and the immatures have dingy yellow streaks on the abdomen.

=Aplonis opacus angus= Momiyama

Micronesian Starling

Aplonis opaca anga Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 6. (Type locality, Toroas, Ruk Island.)

Lamproth[ornis] opaca Kittlitz (part), Observ. Zool., in Lutké, Voy. "Le Séniavine," 3, 1836, p. 297 (Lougounor = Lukunor).

Lamprotornis columbinus Bonaparte (part), Consp. Avium, 1, 1850, p. 417 (Carolinen = Lukunor?).

Lamprotornis columbina Hartlaub (part), Journ. f. Ornith., 1854, p. 168 (Carolinen = Lukunor?).

Calornis kittlitzi Hartlaub and Finsch (part), Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, pp. 89, 100 (Mackenzie = Ulithi?); Finsch (part), Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, p. 23 (Mackenzie = Ulithi?); Schmeltz and Krause (part), Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, pp. 298, 330, 353 (Mortlock, Nukuor, Ruk).

Calornis pacificus Finsch (part), Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, p. 23 (Mackenzie = Ulithi?); idem (part), Journ. f. Ornith., 1880, p. 290 (Ruck, Mortlocks); idem (part), Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880, p. 576 (Ruk); idem (part), Ibis, 1881, p. 111 (Ruk).

Calornis pacifica Finsch (part), Mitth. Ornith. Ver. Wien, 1884, p. 49 (Rukgruppe).

Aplonis kittlitzi Sharpe (part), Cat. Birds British Mus., 13, 1890, p. 136 (Ruk, Lugunor); Wiglesworth (part), Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 44 (Ruk or Luganor, Nukuor); Oustalet (part), Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, (3), 7, 1895, p. 216 (Ruk, Nukuor, Luganor); Hartert (part), Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 59 (Ruk, Luganor); idem, Novit. Zool., 7, 1900, p. 6 (Ruk); Matschie (part), Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 112 (Ruck); Takatsukasa and Kuroda (part), Tori, 1, 1915, p. 55 (Ruk).

Lamprocorax kittlitzi Dubois (part), Syn. Avium, 1, 1902, p. 542 (Ruk, Luganor).

Aplonis opaca Wetmore (part), in Townsend and Wetmore, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoöl., 63, 1919, p. 219 (Truk).

Aplonis kittlitzi kittlitzi Momiyama (part), Tori, 2, 1920, p. 1 (Truk, Wolea).

Aplonis opaca anga Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 71 (?Luganor or Ruk, ?Nukuor, Wolea or Oleai); Takatsukasa and Yamashina, Tori, 32, 1930, p. 109 (Ruk); Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 2, 1930, p. 847 (Ruk); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 170 (Uluthi, Feys, Wolea, Ifalik, Faraulep, Lamotrek, Truk, Nukuoro).

Aplornis apaca anga Takatsukasa and Yamashina, Dobutsu. Zasshi, 43, 1931, p. 458 (Truk?); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 188 (Uluthi, Feys, Wolea, Ifalik, Faraulep, Lamotrek, Truk, Nukuoro).

Aplonis opacus angus Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 297 (Truk and western Carolines); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, pp. 70, 71 (Ulithi Truk).

Geographic range.--Micronesia: Caroline Islands--Ulithi, Fais, Wolea, Ifalik, Faraulep, Lamotrek, Truk, Nukuoro, Lukunor.

Characters.--Adult: Resembles A. o. opacus, but larger and with bill less deep and feathers with distinct greenish luster both on the upper parts and the lower parts. Female smaller.

Immature: Resembles immature of A. o. opacus, but underparts streaked with brighter, buffy-yellow coloring.

Measurements.--Measurements are listed in table 45.

Specimens examined.--Total number, 38 (24 males, 14 females), as follows: Caroline Islands, USNM--Ulithi, 27 (Aug. 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22)--Truk, 2 (Feb. 16, Dec. 13); AMNH--Truk, 9 (Jan. 29, Feb. 1, 28, June 14, Oct. 9, 14).

Nesting.--Hartert (1900:6) reports that at Truk nests of the starling were obtained by Owston's Japanese collectors from May to July and one in March. Nests contained from one to three eggs each.

Molt.--Adult birds taken by the NAMRU2 party at Ulithi in August are in molting plumage.

Food habits.--The stomachs of starlings obtained in August at Ulithi contained pieces of fruit and seeds. Twelve stomachs contained between one and three cc. of these foods. Papaya and small berries were the foods most frequently observed in the stomachs.

Remarks.--The Micronesian Starling of the central and western Carolines is one of the few land birds which lives on both the "high" islands and the "low" coral islands in Micronesia. It is found on several of the coral atolls in the Carolines. In the Hand-list of Japanese Birds (Hachisuka et al., 1932:170), the birds at Ulithi and Fais are placed in the subspecies A. o. angus, although these islands are only a short distance from Yap, at which place another subspecies, A. o. kurodai, occurs. Specimens from Yap are not available for comparison. Specimens from Ulithi and from Truk closely resemble one another.