Part 112

TABLE 47. MEASUREMENTS OF Cleptornis marchei

==================+=========+=========+=============+========= NUMBER AND SEX | Wing | Tail | Full culmen | Tarsus ------------------+---------+---------+-------------+--------- 7 adult males | 79 | 64 | 19.5 | 26 | (77-80) | (61-66) | (19.0-20.0) | (25-27) | | | | 5 adult females | 73 | 58 | 18.0 | 24 | (72-75) | (56-59) | (17.5-18.5) | (23-25) ------------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------

Specimens examined.--Total number, 17 (9 males, 8 females), as follows: Mariana Islands, USNM--Saipan, 4 (July 11, Dec. 15); AMNH--Saipan, 13 (July 8, Aug. 1, 10, 13, 14, 21, 30, Sept. 3, 7, 9, 15).

Nesting.--Hartert (1898:56) reports that one nest of the Golden Honey-eater was found on July 7. It was hung from a fork of a branch, "like the nest of a golden Oriole." He writes that four other nests were obtained in late August. Hartert describes the egg as "pale blue without gloss, spotted over and over with rufous, more so on the thicker end, and measures about 20:15 mm."

Molt.--Specimens taken in July, August, and September are molting.

Remarks.--Oustalet (1895:202) writes that Marche obtained 25 specimens of the Golden Honey-eater at Saipan in May, June, and July, 1887. Little is known regarding its habits; Moran (1946:262) writes that the bird "reminds one of the prothonotary warbler, with a long, curved, black bill." Stott (1947:527) writes that "it appears to be restricted to a single habitat, that of dense forest." He found the bird in forest on the north shore of Magicienne Bay. Coultas obtained only one specimen on his visit to Saipan in 1931. Marshall (1949:216) records some interesting observations of this bird made in 1945. He notes (op. cit. p. 219) that the bird breeds in January, February and April.

Not only is it remarkable that the Golden Honey-eater has become established on a single island in a rather closely associated chain of islands, but it is also difficult to determine from where the bird came. It seemingly has no close relatives in the Micronesian area. Oustalet (1895:202) points out that one has to go to New Guinea, Moluccas, Australia, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga in order to find related forms. In looking through the large collections of Meliphagidae in the American Museum of Natural History, I found only a few genera to which the Saipan Golden Honey-eater seems to be closely related. Timeliopsis of New Guinea has some resemblances to Cleptornis, although the coloration is different. Timeliopsis has a similar bill, but has a longer tail and longer wing; the shortness of the wing in Cleptornis is not unusual since other insular forms also exhibit this characteristic.

Perhaps Cleptornis is closer to the genus Meliphaga of New Guinea and Australia, which has become differentiated into a number of diverse species and subspecies. Cleptornis compares rather favorably with M. pencillata carteri of Australia, but differs by the softness of its feathers and the shorter wing and shorter tail. It shows also some affinities with M. flava of Australia, particularly in shape of bill; the coloration of the feathers is light olive-green in M. flava. The bird at Saipan seemingly has no relationships with the Hawaiian honey-eaters.

=Myzomela cardinalis rubratra= (Lesson)

Cardinal Honey-eater

Cinnyris rubrater Lesson, Dict. Sci. Nat., éd. Levrault, 50, 1827, p. 30. (Type locality, Oualan = Kusaie.)

Cinnyris rubrater Lesson (part), Voy. "La Coquille," Zool., 2, 1828, pp. 433, 678 (Oualan); idem (part), Man. d'Ornith., 2, 1828, p. 55 (Oualan); idem (part), Traité d'Ornith., 1831, p. 299 (Oualan); Kittlitz (part), Kupfertaf. Naturgesch. Vögel, 1832, p. 6, pl. 8, fig. 1 (Ualan); idem (part), Denkw. Reise russ. Amer. Micron. und Kamchat., 1, 1858, pp. 364, 381; 2, 1858, pp. 39, 49 (Ualan).

Certhia Cardinalis Kittlitz, Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Pétersbourg, 2, 1835, p. 4 (Ualan).

Cinnyris cardinalis Kittlitz, Obser. Zool., in Lutké, Voy. "Le Séniavine," 3, 1836, p. 285 (Ualan).

Myzomela sanguinolenta Bonaparte, Consp. Avium, 1, 1850, p. 394 (no loc. = Kusaie?).

Myzomela rubrater Hartlaub (part), Archiv. f. Naturgesch., 18, 1852, pp. 109, 131 (Ualan); Finsch and Hartlaub, Fauna Centralpolynesiens, 1867, p. 57 (Ualan).

Myzomela rubratra Hartlaub (part), Journ. f. Ornith., 1854, p. 168 (Carolinen = Kusaie); idem (part), Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1867 (1868), p. 829 (Carolines = Kusaie); Hartlaub and Finsch (part), Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, p. 95 (Ualan); Giebel (part), Thes. Ornith., 2, 1875, p. 681 (Carolinae = Kusaie); Finsch (part), Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 12, 1876, p. 26 (Ualan); Forbes (part), Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1879, p. 271 (Ualan); Finsch (part), Journ. f. Ornith., 1880, pp. 285, 298 (Kuschai); idem (part), Ibis, 1881, pp. 103, 108, 111 (Kuschai); idem (part), Mitth. Ornith. Ver. Wien, 1884, p. 48 (Ualan); Hartert, Kat. Vogelsamml. Senckenb., 1891, p. 31 (Ualan); Wiglesworth (part), Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 31 (Ualan); Oustalet (part), Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, (3), 7, 1895, pp. 201, 202 (Kushai); Hartert (part), Novit, Zool., 5, 1898, p. 56 (Ualan); Dubois (part), Syn. Avium, 1, 1902, p. 716 (Carolines = Kusaie).

Certhia sanguinolenta Kittlitz, Denkw. Reise russ. Amer. Micron, und Kamchat., 1, 1858, p. 364 (Ualan).

Myzomela major Gray, Cat. Birds Trop. Is. Pacific Ocean, 1859, p. 11 (Oualan?).

Myzomela rubrata Matschie (part), Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 112 (Ualan).

Myzomela rubratra rubratra Wetmore, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 30, 1917, p. 117 (Kusaie); Wetmore (part), in Townsend and Wetmore, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoöl., 63, 1919, p. 219 (Kusaie); Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, pp. 15, 20, 21, 22, (Kusaie); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 72 (Kusaie); Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 2, 1930, p. 743 (Oualan); Hand-list Japanese Birds (part), rev., 1932, p. 172 (Kusaie); Hand-list Japanese Birds (part), 3d ed., 1942, p. 191 (Kusaie).

Myzomela cardinalis rubratra Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 299 (Kusaie).

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

Characters.--Adult male: Head (except lores), neck back, rump, upper tail-coverts, chin, throat, breast, and upper abdomen black with feathers tipped with coloring between "scarlet" and "scarlet-red"; rest of feathering black; bill long and curved and black; feet black; iris dark brown.

TABLE 48. MEASUREMENTS OF Myzomela cardinalis OF MICRONESIA

===================+============+=========+=========+=============+========= | Number | | | | SUBSPECIES | and sex | Wing | Tail | Full culmen | Tarsus -------------------+------------+---------+---------+-------------+--------- M. c. rubratra | 21 adult | 79 | 55 | 19.5 | 22 | males | (76-81) | (53-56) | (18.5-20.5) | (21-22) | | | | | | 20 adult | 71 | 49 | 18.5 | 20 | females | (69-74) | (45-51) | (17.5-19.5) | (19-21) | | | | | M. c. dichromata | 24 adult | 78 | 53 | 21.5 | 22 | males | (76-80) | (51-56) | (20.0-23.0) | (21-23) | | | | | | 22 adult | 69 | 47 | 19.0 | 20 | females | (66-72) | (45-49) | (17.5-20.5) | (19-21) | | | | | M.c. major | 9 adult | 77 | 55 | 20.0 | 22 | males | (75-78) | (54-59) | (19.5-20.5) | (21-22) | | | | | | 2 adult | 70 | 50 | 19.0, 20.5 | 21.5 | females | | | | | | | | | M. c. saffordi | 47 adult | 73 | 55 | 20.0 | 22 | males | (69-77) | (51-56) | (19.0-20.5) | (21-24) | | | | | | 14 adult | 65 | 49 | 18.5 | 21 | females | (63-71) | (46-51) | (17.5-19.5) | (19-21) | | | | | M. c. kurodai | 2 adult | 74, 75 | 52 | 20.0, 20.5 | 20, 21 | males | | | | | | | | | M. c. kobayashii | 17 adult | 74 | 54 | 20.5 | 21 | males | (71-76) | (51-57) | (19.0-22.0) | (20-22) | | | | | | 8 adult | 67 | 48 | 18.0 | 20 | females | (65-68) | (45-50) | (17.5-19.0) | (19-21) -------------------+------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------

Adult female: Resembles adult male, but smaller; red coloring duller; wings and tail more brownish and less blackish; abdomen and under tailcoverts dark gray.

Immature: Resembles adult, but duller and less blackish and more grayish with less red coloring on feathers and an olivaceous-brown tinge to plumage.