Part 110

Remarks.--No specimens of this subspecies have been examined by me. Little information is available regarding the occurrence of this subspecies in the northern Marianas. Oustalet (1895:212) writes that Marche collected four specimens at Pagan and three at Agrihan. Borror (1947:417) writes that in 1945, it was a "common and abundant species" at Agrihan. He obtained one specimen between July 27 and August 14 and comments that it had a grasshopper in its stomach.

Evolutionary history of Aplonis opacus.--Aplonis opacus is known from the Mariana, Palau, and Caroline islands in Micronesia. It consists of several subspecies, which have relatively few distinguishing characteristics. No starlings are known in the Marshall and Gilbert islands, although atolls occur in these island-chains that offer a habitat approximately the same as those in the western Carolines now occupied by A. o. angus.

In regard to parental stock, Sharpe (1876:47) considered A. opacus as "nothing but a slightly more metallic race of C. mysolensis, with a still stouter bill." The species with which Sharpe compared A. opacus is known from Mysol, Buru, and Ceram. Oustalet (1896:70) thought that the Aplonis in Micronesia belonged to a group of starlings whose members are scattered through the Pacific islands including Cook, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, New Britain, New Guinea, Banta, Mysol, Salwatti, and Timor. Mayr (1941b:204) is of the opinion that Aplonis in Micronesia was derived from central Polynesia. Amadon (1943:8), in his study of the genera of starlings, places A. opacus within a superspecies containing A. cinerascens, A. tabuensis, A. fuscus, and possibly A. feadensis and A. cantoroides. All of these are blackish birds with greenish gloss with immatures having the underparts streaked. In comparing A. opacus with these mentioned species and with other species of Aplonis, I find that A. opacus more closely resembles A. feadensis and A. cantoroides than any others. Although there are differences in size of the bill, wing, and tail, these structures are proportionally the same. The streaked underparts of the immatures of A. cantoroides are much like that of the immatures of A. opacus, whereas the immatures of A. feadensis are only faintly streaked with whitish below. The eye of A. cantoroides is red, and that of A. opacus is more nearly yellow. The ancestral stock from which A. opacus developed in Micronesia seemingly reached the area from Melanesia. In Micronesia the birds dispersed to various groups of islands from some point in the Caroline Islands. The birds are absent from the Marshall Islands. Perhaps the birds never reached the Marshall Islands or they may have been present in former times and disappeared since then.

=Aplonis pelzelni= Finsch

Ponapé Mountain Starling

Aplonis pelzelni Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1875 (1876), p. 644. (Type locality, Ponapé.)

Aplonis pelzelni Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 12, 1876, pp. 17, 32, pl. 2, fig. 3 (Ponapé); idem, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1877 (1878), p. 779 (Ponapé); idem, Journ, f. Ornith., 1880, p. 290 (Ponapé); idem, Ibis, 1881, pp. 110, 112, 115 (Ponapé); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, p. 281 (Ponapé); Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 13, 1890, p. 136 (Ponapé); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 43 (Ponapé); Oustalet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, (3), 7, 1895, p. 215 (Ponapé); Bolau, Mitteil. Naturhist. Mus. Hamburg, 1898, p. 62 (Ponapé); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, pp. 111, 112 (Ponapé); Dubois, Syn. Avium, 1, 1902, p. 542 (Ponapé); Reichenow, Die Vögel, 2, 1914, p. 355 (Ponapé); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 64 (Ponapé); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 70 (Ponapé); Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 2, 1930, p. 849 (Ponapé); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 170 (Ponapé); Bequaert, Mushi, 12, 1939, p. 82 (Ponapé); Mayr, Proc. 6th Pacific Sci. Congr., 4, 1941, pp. 204, 213 (Ponapé); Bequaert, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 16, 1941, p. 290 (Ponapé); Mayr. Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 298 (Ponapé).

Aplornis pelzelni Hand-List Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 189 (Ponapé).

Geographic range.--Micronesia: Caroline Islands--Ponapé.

Characters.--Adult: A small, dark starling with upper parts sooty-brown, darker on head with forehead and lores blackish; wings, rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail lighter and more brownish than head; underparts paler and washed with olive-brown; bill and feet black; iris brown.

Immature: Resembles adult, but lighter brown, especially the underparts.

A. pelzelni differs from A. opacus by having no gloss on the feathers, smaller size, more slender bill, and a brown iris.

Measurements.--Measurements are listed in table 46.

Specimens examined.--Total number, 59 (32 males, 24 females, 3 unsexed), from Caroline Islands, AMNH--Ponapé (Dec).

Nesting.--Coultas (field notes) obtained reports that the Ponapé Mountain Starling nests in cavities in trees and lays two eggs.

TABLE 46. MEASUREMENTS OF Aplonis pelzelni

==================+=========+=======+===========+==========+======== | | | | Depth of | NUMBER AND SEX | Wing | Tail | Exposed | bill at | Tarsus | | | culmen | nostril | ------------------+---------+-------+-----------+----------+-------- 10 adult males | 103 | 65 | 20.0 | 6.5 | 27 | 101-105 | 63-67 | 19.0-21.0 | 6.0-7.0 | 26-28 | | | | | 10 adult females | 99 | 61 | 19.5 | 6.0 | 27 | 97-102 | 57-64 | 19.5-20.5 | 6.0-6.5 | 26-27 ------------------+---------+-------+-----------+----------+--------

Parasites.--Bequaert (1939:82 and 1941:290) records the fly (Hippoboscidae), Ornithoica pusilla, from A. pelzelni.

Remarks.--Coultas (field notes) writes that "the Mountain Starling is a bird of the true mountain forest.... I did not record it below 1,400 feet. Natives tell me that the Mountain Starling formerly covered the whole of the island and that now some individuals can be found on the low atoll of Ant, to the westward of Ponapé. Unfortunately, I was not permitted to visit either Ant or Pakin." Coultas notes also that the birds are quiet and usually travel in pairs. They are easily attracted by squeaking the lips against the hand or by the cries of a wounded bird. Many of these starlings were taken in fruit trees. Coultas describes the call of A. pelzelni as "weaker and finer" than that of A. opacus. These two species may be found together, according to Coultas, but A. opacus is apparently the more aggressive and often drives A. pelzelni away. Richards (in litt.) found this bird to be "very rare" while on his visit to Ponapé in 1947-1948. He observed two individuals on January 15, 1948, at an elevation of approximately 600 or 700 feet. A male was taken.

Evolutionary history of Aplonis pelzelni.--The Ponapé Mountain Starling is a distinctive bird which evidently represents an ancient and single colonization of Micronesia. It lacks the green gloss which is found on many of the other starlings of the Pacific region. It has a brown iris, and the immatures lack the streaked underparts which are characteristic of A. opacus and other species. The structure of its wing resembles that of A. opacus, but the primaries are more rounded. It is apparently better adapted to forested uplands, whereas A. opacus and its relatives, A. cantoroides and A. feadensis, appear to prefer lowland forests and coconut plantations. In habits and habitat preference, A. pelzelni seems to resemble A. santovestris, which is restricted to mountain environment on Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides. The describers of this starling, Harrisson and Marshall (1937:149), write that "Aplonis santovestris apparently most closely resembles A. pelzelni from Ponapé, especially in bill and tarsus." According to the description, A. santovestris is approximately the size of A. pelzelni with brownish coloring, crown dark brown, lower back and rump dark rufous, wing and tail blackish-brown, underparts rufous-brown, and iris grayish-green. These two birds are separated geographically and apparently exhibit evidences of parallel development. Possibly they came from a common ancestral stock. Mayr (1941b:204) writes that A. pelzelni belongs with the starlings of the Polynesian area. I have compared A. pelzelni with other starlings of the Southwest Pacific, including A. feadensis, A. cantoroides, and A. zealandicus, but see no close resemblances.

=Aplonis corvinus= (Kittlitz)

Kusaie Mountain Starling

Lamprothornis corvina Kittlitz, Kupfertaf. Naturgesch. Vögel, 2, 1833, p. 12, pl. 15, fig. 3. (Type locality, Ualan = Kusaie.)

Lamprothornis corvina, Kittlitz, Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Peterbourg, 2, 1835, p. 7, pl. 9 (Ualan); idem, Obser. Zool., in Lutké, Voy. "Le Séniavine," 3, 1836, p. 285 (Ualan).

Lamprotornis corvina Bonaparte, Consp. Avium, 1, 1850, p. 417 (Ualan); Hartlaub, Archiv. f. Naturgesch., 18, 1852, p. 133 (Ualan); Kittlitz, Denkw. Reise russ. Amer. Micron. und Kamchat., 2, 1858, pp. 25, 43, 59, 103 (Ualan); Finsch, Ibis, 1881, p. 104 (Kuschai).

Lamprocorax corvinus Hartlaub, Journ. f. Ornith., 1854, p. 168 (Carolinen = Kusaie); Sclater, Ibis, 1859, p. 327 (Caroline = Kusaie); Dubois, Syn. Avium, 1, 1902, p. 543 (Kuschai).

Calornis (Lamprocorax?) corvina Gray, Cat. Birds Trop. Is. Pacific Ocean, 1859, p. 25 (Oualan).

Sturnoides corvina Finsch and Hartlaub, Fauna Centralpolynesiens, 1867, p. 108 (Ualan); Finsch, Journ. f. Ornith., 1880, pp. 297, 302 (Kuschai).