Part 43

Characters.--Adult: A large, purplish-blue, marsh bird with crown and sides of head dusky-black; wing-coverts purplish-blue; rest of upper parts dark, washed with olivaceous-brown; outer webs of primaries and secondaries tinged with purplish-blue; chin, axillaries and under wing-coverts dusky; under tail-coverts whitish; rest of underparts purplish-blue, blacker on abdomen.

Porphyrio p. pelewensis resembles P. p. palliatus Bruggemann of Celebes and P. p. melanopterus Bonaparte of the Moluccas and New Guinea but upper parts paler and slightly less glossy; lesser and primary wing-coverts more purplish-blue and less greenish-blue; outer webs of primaries and secondaries lighter purplish-blue; underparts less blue with patch on throat and breast paler blue with less green (patch present on only one specimen from the Palaus).

Measurements.--Measurements of one male: wing, 227; tail, 81; culmen and shield, 62.5; tarsus, 77; of three females: wing, 212, 218, 227; tail, 77, 81, 86; culmen and shield, 57, 61, 64; tarsus, 75, 75, 77.

Specimens examined.--Total number, 6 (1 male, 3 females, 2 unsexed), as follows: Palau Islands, USNM--Angaur, 1 chick (Sept. 21) AMNH--exact locality not given, 5 (Nov. 13, 19, Dec. 17-19, undated).

Nesting.--A black, downy chick was captured on September 21, 1945, at the edge of a fresh-water lake on Angaur by Davidson of the NAMRU2 party (Baker, 1948:49). Two females taken by Coultas in December had enlarged gonads.

Remarks.--The Purple Swamphen in the Palaus stands out as one of the more distinctive subspecies of P. porphyrio. It also marks the most northeastern extension of the range of this species. The subspecies in the Palaus shows affinities to that found to the south and southwest and probably reached Micronesia via the Papuan area, Celebes or the Moluccas rather than from the Philippines. It is interesting that this bird, as well as several other species, has been able to establish itself at the Palau Islands, but has not extended its range farther into other islands of Micronesia. Perhaps, the bird is now in an early stage in its island occupation.

The Purple Swamphen is probably not abundant in the Palaus. It is a large and conspicuous bird, and its restriction to swamps and areas around lakes may allow native hunters to obtain it rather easily, particularly by snares or by organized drives. Coultas (field notes) obtained specimens in taro swamps; he saw only 4 individuals and remarks that the birds utter harsh cries at night. The NAMRU2 party flushed an adult from lake side vegetation at Angaur on September 21, 1945. This bird was not taken, but a downy young was obtained in the area the same day.

=Fulica atra atra= Linnaeus

Common Coot

Fulica atra Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, 1758, p. 152. (Type locality, Europe, restricted to Sweden.)

Fulica atra Hartert, Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, pp. 64, 69 (Guam); Seale, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 1, 1901, p. 32 (Guam); Safford, Osprey, 1902, p. 70 (Marianas); idem, The Plant World, 7, 1904, p. 268 (Guam); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 43 (Guam); Bryan, Guam Rec., vol. 13, no. 2, 1936, p. 15 (Guam).

Fulica atra atra Hartert, Vögel pal. Fauna, 15, 1921, p. 1852 (Guam); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 197 (Tinian, Guam); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 222, (Tinian, Guam); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 302 (Micronesia).

Geographic range.--Breeds in Europe, northern Africa, and Asia. Winters south to Africa, Malaysia, southern Asia. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands--Tinian, Guam.

Remarks.--The Common Coot is a straggler to Micronesia in winter. It has been recorded from Guam and Tinian. An unsexed specimen in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History was taken at Guam in the fall of 1896 by one of Owston's collectors.

=Squatarola squatarola= (Linnaeus)

Black-bellied Plover

Tringa Squatarola Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, 1758, p. 149. (Type locality, Europe, restricted to Sweden.)

Charadrius squatarola Hartert, Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 66 (Saipan); Seale, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 1, 1901, p. 35 (Micronesia); Safford, Osprey, 1902, p. 67 (Marianas).

Squatarola squatarola Hartert, Novit. Zool., 7, 1900, p. 9 (Ruk); Safford, The Plant World, 7, 1904, p. 266 (Guam); idem, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb., 9, 1905, p. 80 (Guam); Cox, Island of Guam, 1917, p. 22 (Guam); Ridgway, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 50, pt. 8, 1919, p. 72 (Ruk); Bryan, Guam Rec., vol. 13, no. 2, 1936, p. 15 (Guam); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 216 (Saipan, Truk); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 36 (Truk); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 50 (Guam).

Squatarola helvetica Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 61 (Marianas, Ruk).

Squatarola squatarola hypomelaena Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 43 (Ruk, Saipan); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 193 (Saipan, Truk).

Geographic range.--Breeds in arctic regions of Holarctica. Winters in Southern Hemisphere. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands--Guam, Saipan; Caroline Islands--Truk; Marshall Islands--Eniwetok.

Specimens examined.--One female from Mariana Islands. USNM--Guam (Aug. 27).

Remarks.--The Black-bellied Plover is an uncommon visitor to Micronesia. One bird was obtained by Markley of the NAMRU2 party at Guam on August 27, 1945; Flavin recorded five of these birds from November, 1944, to January, 1946. Bryan and Greenway (1944:109) record this species as an occasional visitor to the Hawaiian Islands. Gleise and Genelly (1945:221) observed the Black-bellied Plover at Eniwetok in 1945.

=Pluvialis dominica fulva= (Gmelin)

Pacific Golden Plover

Charadrius fulvus Gmelin, Syst. Nat., 1, pt. 2, 1789, p. 687. (Type locality, Tahiti.)

Charadrius pluvialis Kittlitz, Obser. Zool., in Lutké., Voy. "Le Séniavine," 3, 1836, pp. 287, 299, 304 (Ualan, Longounor, Guahan); idem, Denkw. Reise russ. Amer. Micron. und Kamchat., 2, 1858, pp. 32, 55 (Ualan).