Part 63

Remarks.--In 1945, the NAMRU2 party observed pigeons about the towns on Guam, particularly at the town of Inarajan. Bryan (1936:24) writes that the birds were introduced by the United States Navy and Marine Corps at Guam; the stock originating from escaped carrier pigeons. Marshall (1949:221) records this bird from Tinian.

=Ptilinopus porphyraceus ponapensis= (Finsch)

Crimson-crowned Fruit Dove

Ptilinopus ponapensis Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1877 (1878), p. 779. (Type locality, Ponapé.)

Ptilinopus? fasciatus Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 12, 1876, pp. 18, 37 (Ponapé).

Ptilopus fasciatus Elliot, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1878, p. 536 (Ponapé); Tristram, Cat. Birds, 1889, p. 44 (Ponapé).

Ptilopus ponapensis Schmeltz, Verhandl. Ver. nat. Unterhaltung Hamburg, 1877 (1879), pp. 178, 179 (Ponapé); Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880, p. 576 (Ruk, Ponapé); idem, Journ. f. Ornith., 1880, pp. 291, 303 (Ponapé); idem, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880, p. 578 (Ruk, Ponapé); idem, Ibis, 1881, pp. 113, 115 (Ponapé); Wiglesworth, Ibis, 1891, p. 583 (Ponapé, Ruk); idem, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 50 (Ponapé, Ruk); Salvadori, Cat. Birds British Mus., 21, 1893, p. 93 (Ponapé, Ruk); Oustalet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris, (3), 7, 1895, p. 222 (Ponapé); Nehrkron, Kat. Eiers., 1899, p. 180 (Ruk); Dubois, Syn. Avium, 2, 1904, p. 736 (Ruck, Ponapé); Reichenow, Die Vögel, 1, 1913, p. 354 (Ruk, Ponapé); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 52 (Ruk, Ponapé); Wetmore, in Townsend and Wetmore, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoöl., 63, 1919, p. 189 (Uala, Ponapé).

Ptilinopus ponapensis Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, p. 353 (Ruk); Hartert, Novit. Zool., 7, 1900, p. 7 (Ruk, Ponapé); Seale, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 1, 1901, p. 42 (Ponapé); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 113 (Ruck, Ponapé); Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 32 (Ponapé); Bequaert, Mushi, 12, 1939, pp. 81, 82 (Ponapé); Mayr. Proc. 6th Pacific Sci. Congr., 4, 1939 (1941), p. 204 (Ponapé); Bequaert, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 16, 1941, pp. 266, 290 (Ponapé).

Ptilinopus Ponapensis Christian, The Caroline Islands, 1899, p. 357 (Ponapé).

Ptilinopus ponepensis ponapensis Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 57 (Ponapé, Ruk); Yamashina, Tori, 7, 1932, p. 408 (Ponapé); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 190 (Ponapé, Ruk); Peters, Check-list Birds World, 3, 1937, p. 31 (Ruk, Ponapé); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 213 (Ponapé, Truk).

Ptilinopus porphyraceus ponapensis Ripley and Birckhead, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 1192, 1942, p. 7 (Ruk, Ponapé); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 289 (Truk, Ponapé); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 59 (Truk).

Geographic range.--Micronesia: Caroline Islands--Truk, Ponapé. Characters.--Adult male: A green fruit dove with forehead, anterior lores and crown near "pansy purple," faintly margined with yellow; occiput, sides of head, neck, upper breast grayish-green with bifid feathers of midbreast more olivaceous; chin and midthroat light yellow; breast, sides and tibia green; midpart of lower breast dark bluish-green, tinged with dark purple; lower abdomen, vent, and undertail yellow, under tail-coverts deeper yellow tinged with orange; upper parts dark green; wings metallic green on outer webs and tips, inner secondaries and some posterior scapulars with purple spots near tips; primaries and secondaries edged on outer webs with yellowish; underwing gray with yellow edges on hind, under wing-coverts; upper side of tail metallic green with terminal, broad yellow band; under side of tail gray; bill lead-colored, feet wine-brown, iris whitish to pale brown. Adult female resembles adult male, but slightly smaller and duller.

Immature: Resembles adult, but entirely green with yellow edgings on feathers and lacking crimson crown and colored breast patch.

Measurements.--Measurements of subspecies of P. porphyraceus in Micronesia are presented in table 25.

TABLE 25. MEASUREMENTS OF Ptilinopus porphyraceus IN MICRONESIA

===================+============+===============+============+=========== | | | Exposed | SUBSPECIES | Number | Wing | culmen | Tarsus -------------------+------------+---------------+------------+----------- P. p. ponapensis | 12 males | 137 (133-141) | 14 (13-15) | 25 (24-27) | 11 females | 133 (126-137) | 14 (13-15) | 25 (24-26) | | | | P. p. hernsheimi | 6 males | 134 (130-138) | 13 (12-14) | 25 (24-26) | 5 females | 127 (125-130) | 13 (12-13) | 25 (24-25) | | | | P. p. pelewensis | 10 males | 133 (131-134) | 15 (13-15) | 25 (23-26) | 4 females | 133 (130-138) | 15 (14-15) | 24 (23-24) -------------------+------------+---------------+------------+-----------

Specimens examined.--Total number, 81 (52 males, 26 females, 3 unsexed), as follows: Caroline Islands, USNM--Truk, 4 (Feb. 16, Dec. 24); AMNH--Truk, 24 (Jan., June, Oct.)--Ponapé, 53 (Nov., Dec).

Nesting.--Yamashina (1932a:408) reports on eggs taken at Ponapé on the following dates: July 10, 12, August 1, 12, 15, 21. Only one egg was found to a nest. Hartert (1900:8) records nests containing eggs in May and June at Truk. Coultas (field notes) describes the nest as a flimsy affair. At Ponapé in November and December he found nests on low branches (10 to 20 feet from the ground) each containing a single egg. Nests were found also in the tops of tree ferns. Females taken in these months had enlarged gonads.

Parasites.--Bequaert (1939:81, 82, and 1941:266, 290) records the two flies (Hippoboscidae), Ornithoctona plicata and O. pusilla, from the fruit dove at Ponapé.

Remarks.--McElroy of the NAMRU2 party found the birds in mountainous areas at Truk in December, 1945. At Ponapé in November and December, 1931, Coultas (field notes) comments that the bird is rapidly disappearing owing to persistent hunting by the natives and, at that time, by the Japanese. He found the birds to be strictly forest-living and to frequent the larger fruit-bearing trees of the lowlands and the mountain sides. Coultas writes that the Japanese hunters attracted the doves by the use of calls. The natives catch the birds with a gum mixture obtained from bread-fruit gum and coconut oil.

=Ptilinopus porphyraceus hernsheimi= (Finsch)

Crimson-crowned Fruit Dove

Ptilopus Hernsheimi Finsch., Journ. f. Ornith., 1880, p. 303. (Type locality, Kuschai.)

Ptilopus hernsheimi Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880, p. 577 (Kuschai); Reichenow and Schalow, Journ. f. Ornith., 1881, p. 75 (Kuschai); Finsch, Ibis, 1881, pp. 106, 107, 108 (Kushai); Wiglesworth, Ibis, 1891, p. 583 (Ualan); idem, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 51 (Ualan); Salvadori, Cat. Birds British Mus., 21, 1893, p. 94 (Ualan); Oustalet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris, (3), 7, 1895, p. 222 (Oualan); Dubois, Syn. Avium, 2, 1904, p. 736 (Kuschai); Reichenow, Die Vögel, 1, 1913, p. 355 (Kuschai); Wetmore, in Townsend and Wetmore, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoöl., 63, 1919, p. 189 (Kusaie).

Ptilinopus hernsheimi Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 113 (Ualan); Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 33 (Kusaie).

Ptilinopus ponapensis hernsheimi Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 57 (Kusaie); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 190 (Kusaie); Peters, Check-list Birds World, 3, 1937, p. 31 (Kusaie); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 212 (Kusaie).

Ptilinopus marshallianus Peters and Griscom, Proc. New England Zool. Club, 10, 1928, p. 104 (Type locality, Ebon); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 190 (Ebon).

Ptilinopus ponapensis marshallianus Peters, Check-list Birds World, 3, 1937, p. 31 (Ebon); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 213 (Ebon).