Part 31

Specimens examined.--Total number, 3 males from Palau Islands, AMNH--exact locality not given (Oct. 26, Nov. 25).

Remarks.--A. p. pelewensis is apparently rare in the Palau Islands. Coultas, who visited the Palaus in October to December, 1931, writes (field notes) that he received reports that the birds were present and nested in numbers on fresh water lakes. He took specimens in taro patches and comments that the ducks probably feed at night and have retiring habits during the day. At Peleliu in 1945, the NAMRU2 party received several reports of ducks but failed to find the birds. At Truk, in December, 1945, McElroy of the NAMRU2 party found ducks to be fairly numerous in rice paddies, marshes, and swamps. He observed that the birds roosted at Moen Island at night but that they apparently flew to outlying islands to spend the day. Richards observed ducks on Moen Island on August 28 and 29, 1947, and again in the period from January 19 to February 10, 1948. He saw several flocks of ducks including one containing "about a dozen ducks" at ponds along a roadway and at an airstrip. Kuroda named the population at Truk as distinct in 1939. I have not been able to examine his description and no specimens are available for study, but if the birds at Truk represent an independent colonization (different from that of the birds at Palau) they might exhibit recognizable variation. Amadon (1943:5) has already pointed out that the shortness of the wing of specimens in the Palaus may merit subspecific status for the population. Delacour and Mayr (1945:21) propose that the Palau Gray Duck is a subspecies of A. poecilorhyncha; this treatment is followed in the present work.

Evolutionary history.--A. p. pelewensis, as Amadon (1943:1) has stated, represents a population of mallards which became separated from the ancestral stock in the Australian or Malayan area and when once differentiated, invaded New Zealand and other parts of Polynesia, Melanesia, and southwestern Micronesia. Amadon points out that its range in the Pacific islands is more or less complimentary to that of A. oustaleti in the Marianas and the Philippine Mallard (A. poecilorhyncha luzonica Fraser), as well as to the Hawaiian forms (A. wyvilliana Sclater and A. laysanensis Rothschild). The range of A. p. pelewensis gives one the impression that its present distribution may be only a stage in a gradual spreading of the species, for it certainly has not yet occupied all habitats suitable for it in southern Micronesia nor elsewhere in Oceania. As in the case of A. oustaleti, A. p. pelewensis appears to prefer areas of fresh, and possibly brackish, water on the larger islands.

A. p. luzonica is a near relative of A. p. pelewensis but has rufous-brown instead of buffy-brown coloring on the chin, throat, sides of head, and superciliary region. The underparts of the Philippine Mallard are much less mottled. The specula are similar. Both of these forms were probably derived from a mallard of the A. p. poecilorhyncha type.

=Anas querquedula= Linnaeus

Garganey Teal

Anas Querquedula Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, 1758, p. 126. (Type locality, Europe, restricted to Sweden.)

Anas querquedula Marshall, Condor, 51, 1949, p. 221 (Tinian).

Geographic range.--Breeds in Europe and Asia. Winters from northern Africa to New Guinea. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands--Tinian.

Remarks.--Marshall (1949:221) obtained one of a pair of these ducks which he observed "daily in April on Lake Hagoi" at Tinian.

=Anas crecca crecca= Linnaeus

European Teal

Anas Crecca Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, 1758, p. 126. (Type locality, Europe, restricted to Sweden.)

Querquedula crecca crecca Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 185 (Pagan).

Anas crecca crecca Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 206 (Pagan).

Anas crecca Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 302 (Micronesia).

Geographic range.--Breeds in Iceland, northern Europe, Asia, and Aleutians. Winters south to northern Africa, Asia and Philippines. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands--Pagan.

Remarks.--The European Teal has been recorded by the Japanese at Pagan in the northern Marianas. It appears to be an uncommon winter visitor to Micronesia.

=Anas crecca carolinensis= Gmelin

Green-winged Teal

Anas carolinensis Gmelin, Syst. Nat., 1, pt. 2, 1789, p. 533. (Type locality, Carolina to Hudson Bay.)

Anas carolinensis Reichenow, Ornith. Monatsber., 1901, p. 17 (Jaluit); Schnee, Ornith. Monatsber., 1901, p. 131 (Marshalls); idem, Zool. Jahrbücher, 20, 1904, p. 390 (Marschall Inseln); Phillips, Nat. Hist. Ducks, 2, 1923, p. 235 (Marshall Islands).

Querquedula crecca carolinensis Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 185 (Marshall Islands).

Anas crecca carolinensis Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 206 (Marshall Islands).

Geographic range.--Breeds in northwestern and northcentral North America. Winters to West Indies, Central America and Mexico. In Micronesia: Marshall Islands--Jaluit.

Remarks.--Reichenow (1901:17) and Schnee (1901:131) record the Green-wing Teal in the Marshall Islands. It is the only record known for Micronesia. Bryan and Greenway (1944:104) record the teal as a migrant to the Hawaiian Islands.

=Anas acuta acuta= Linnaeus

Pintail