Part 65

Columba purpurata Kittlitz, Kupfertaf. Naturgesch. Vögel, 3, 1833, p. 25, pl. 23, fig. 2 (Guahan); idem, Obser. Zool., in Lutké, Voy. "Le Séniavine," 3, 1836, p. 305 (Guahan).

Ptilinopus purpuratus Hartlaub, Journ. f. Ornith., 1854, p. 167 (Mariannen); Hartert, Katalog Vogelsamml. Senckenb., 1891, p. 190 (Guaham).

Ptilopus roseicapillus Bonaparte, Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, 39, 1854, p. 877 (Mariannes); idem, Icon. Pigeons, 1857, pl. 23 and desc. letterpress (Mariannes); Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, 6, no. 35, 1873, p. 8 (Guam); Giebel, Thes. Ornith., 3, 1877, p. 368 (Mariannae); Elliot, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1878, p. 537 (Marianne); Oustalet, Le Nat., 1889, p. 261 (Mariannes); Wiglesworth, Ibis, 1891, p. 584 (Marianne); idem, Abhandl. und Ber Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 48 (Marianne); Salvadori, Cat. Birds British Mus., 21, 1893, p. 108 (Marianne Islands); Oustalet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris, (3), 7, 1895, p. 218 (Saypan, Guam, Rota); Safford, The Plant World, 7, 1904, p. 264 (Guam); Dubois, Syn. Avium, 2, 1904, p. 736 (Mariannes); Safford, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb., 9, 1905, p. 78 (Guam); Schnee, Zeitschr. f. Naturwisch., 82, 1912, p. 465 (Marianen); Prowazek, Die deutschen Marianen, 1913, p. 101 (Marianen); Reichenow, Die Vögel, 1, 1913, p. 354 (Marianen); Cox, Island of Guam, 1917, p. 20 (Guam); Bryan, Guam Rec. vol. 13, no. 2, 1936, p. 24 (Guam); Thompson, Guam and its people, 1942, p. 23 (Guam).

Kurukuru roseicapillus Prévost and Des Murs, Voy. "Venus," Oiseaux, 1855, pp. 221, 231, 257, 259, 269 (Guam).

Ptilopus roseicapilla Bonaparte, Consp. Avium, 2, 1855, p. 21 (Mariannis).

Ptilonopus roseicapillus Gray, Cat. Birds Trop. Is. Pacific Ocean, 1859, p. 31 (Guam); Reichenbach, Tauben, 1861, p. 96 (Mariannen); Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1874, p. 94 (Mariannes).

Ptilinopus roseicapillus Finsch and Hartlaub, Fauna Centralpolynesiens, 1867, pp. 122, 127 (Mariannen); Gray, Hand-list Birds, 2, 1870, p. 225 (Ladrones); Hartert, Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 60 (Guam, Rota, Saipan); Wheeler, Report Island of Guam, 1900, p. 13 (Guam); Seale, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 1, 1901, p. 39 (Guam, Rota, Saipan); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 113 (Guam, Saipan); Safford, Osprey, 1902, p. 68 (Marianas); idem, Amer. Anthro., 4, 1902, p. 711 (Guam); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 56 (Guam, Rota, Saipan); Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 33 (Marianne); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 190 (Tinian, Saipan, Rota); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 212 (Guam, Rota, Tinian, Saipan); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 288 (Marianas); Downs, Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci., 49, 1946, p. 95 (Tinian); Watson, The Raven, 17, 1946, p. 42 (Guam); Strophlet, Auk, 63, 1946, p. 538 (Guam); Baker, Condor, 49, 1947, p. 125 (Guam); Stott, Auk, 64, 1947, p. 526 (Saipan); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 59 (Guam, Rota).

Ptilopus diadematus Giebel, Thes. Ornith., 3, 1877, p. 363 (Marianae).

Ptilinopus roseicapilla Peters, Check-list Birds World, 3, 1937, p. 31 (Saipan, Tinian, Rota, Guam); Ripley and Birckhead, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 1192, 1942, p. 3 (Guam, Rota, Tinian, Saipan).

Geographic range.--Micronesia: Mariana Islands--Guam, Rota, Tinian, Saipan.

Characters.--Adult male: A green dove with crown, forehead, anterior lores, and spot at base of mandible near "aster purple," margined with pale yellow especially on top of head; chin and throat pale yellow to white; sides of head greenish-gray, darker on occiput; breast green with pearly-gray tinge on feathers of middle part; lower breast with dark purple patch; abdomen orange with yellowish-green coloring at midline; anal region and lower tail-coverts yellow, tinged with orange on lower tail-coverts; sides and tibia greenish with yellow tinges; upper parts green, more yellowish-green on rump; wings glossy, upper wing-coverts brighter in middle and margined with yellow; under side of wing and under side of tail gray; upper side of tail green with broad grayish terminal band margined with yellow; iris pale yellow; bill grass-green; legs and feet reddish-black.

Adult female: Resembles male, but slightly smaller with neck greener. Immature resembles adult, but lacking colored crown; body feathers edged with yellow.

Birds from Guam, Rota, and Tinian exhibit no conspicuous differences. P. roseicapillus is closest to P. regina of southern Papua, Lesser Sunda Islands, and Australia being, according to Ripley and Birckhead (1942:3), "Similar to regina, but crown and abdominal band darker; malar apex concolorous with crown; hind neck more grayish; tail-bar wider and paler."

Measurements.--Measurements of P. roseicapillus are presented in table 26.

Weights.--In 1948 (1948:59) I listed the weights of 14 adult males as 81-103 (90), of 4 adult females as 85-99 (92), and of one nestling in post natal molt as 44 grams. These were taken at Guam.

Specimens examined.--Total number, 43 (32 males, 10 females, 1 unsexed), as follows: Mariana Islands, USNM--Guam, 28 (March 8, May 25, 27, June 3, 12, 14, July 2, 6, 10, 18, 19, 29, Aug. 21)--Rota, 3 (Oct. 28, 31, Nov. 2)--Tinian, 1 (Oct. 26); AMNH--Guam, 8 (Aug.)--Tinian, 3 (Sept.).

TABLE 26. MEASUREMENTS OF Ptilinopus roseicapillus

=================+===============+============+==============+=========== | | | Exposed | NUMBER | Wing | Tail | culmen | Tarsus -----------------+---------------+------------+--------------+-------------- 32 adult males | 127 (122-133) | 80 (75-84) | 14 (13-15.3) | 25 (24-27) 10 adult females | 124 (121-130) | 76 (75-79) | 13 (12-13.7) | 24 (22-25.5) -----------------+---------------+------------+--------------+--------------

Nesting.--At Guam, I obtained records of nests of fruit doves on March 1, 1927, and May 7, 1945. David H. Johnson observed a pair of fruit doves in the act of copulation on May 26, 1945. Birds with enlarged gonads were taken by the NAMRU2 party in March and July. A nestling in post natal molt, just beginning to fly, was taken on July 6. Seale (1901:39) reports two nests, each containing one white egg, taken in the period from May to July. These nests were found in trees eight to ten feet above the ground.

Food habits.--The Marianas Fruit Dove feeds on fruits and seeds of trees and shrubs. The birds are apparently strictly tree dwellers; I saw no birds on the ground. A favorite fruit is that of a flowering shrub known as the "ink berry." Birds were collected which contained stomachs full of these small black berries. The fruit of the papaya is also a favorite food.

Remarks.--The NAMRU2 party found the Marianas Fruit Dove at Guam to be fairly numerous in undisturbed jungle, and more abundant in the heavy, second-growth, scrub-forest as was found on Amantes Point in 1945. The birds were secretive but were easily located by their calls. They were usually found as singles sitting quietly concealed in thick vegetation. Birds were seen flying rather infrequently, and then only for short distances. The removal of large tracts of jungle to provide space for the construction of air strips and installations in the late war has disturbed some of the habitat of these birds. Although vast tracts of forest were undisturbed, the birds probably have decreased at Guam. Coultas (field notes) found the birds common at the northern end of Guam in 1931. He commented that natives catch them with snares and bird lime for the local markets. At Tinian in 1931, Coultas found few birds. Downs (1946:95) and Stott (1947:526) record the birds at Tinian and Saipan, respectively, in 1945. At Rota, the NAMRU2 party found the dove to be numerous.

Evolutionary history of Ptilinopus in Micronesia.--Oceania is especially rich in species and subspecies of the genus Ptilinopus. Ripley and Birckhead (1942) have made the most recent and most thorough contribution concerning these birds. They state that the center of distribution for the genus lies in the Papuan region. Within the Oceanic region there are several species of Ptilinopus which in one way or another are rather closely related; Rensch (1938:277) uses these as examples of species which have been formed by isolation. These include P. perousii from Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga; P. mercierii from the Marquesas; P. dupetithouarsii from the Marquesas; P. huttoni from Rapa; P. purpuratus from Henderson, Tuamotus, Societies; P. porphyraceus from Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Carolines, Solomons, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and adjacent areas; and P. roseicapillus from Marianas. In all of these birds the crown is wine-red except in P. dupetithouarsii in which it is whitish. P. porphyraceus appears to be more closely related to P. purpuratus than to any other species and is characterized by an often brightly washed spot of color of some shade of red or orange on the breast. These birds may have invaded Micronesia from the region of the Solomon Islands, although it appears more likely that they arose in the Samoa-Fiji-Tonga region and moved northward, probably by way of the Marshall Islands. P. p. hernsheimi from Kusaie and P. p. ponapensis from Ponapé and Truk resemble P. p. faciatus Peale from Samoa more closely than they do any other subspecies. P. p. pelewensis from Palau, on the other hand shows little relation to these other two Micronesian subspecies and appears to be closest to P. p. porphyraceus of Fiji and Tonga or possibly to P. grayi from Melanesia. Ripley and Birckhead (1942:7) suggest that the subspecies at Palau owes its marked divergence to its isolated position at the periphery of the range of the species. P. p. pelewensis probably represents an independent and an earlier colonization, possibly from a stock different from that from which the two subspecies in the Carolines arose. The presence in the Palaus of subspecies singularly different from subspecies in the Carolines can also be observed in other genera, as for example, Rhipidura, and Myiagra. Figure 13 shows the inferred routes of colonization of Ptilinopus to Micronesia.

P. roseicapillus seemingly represents a remnant, or perhaps a successful straggler, of an early invasion to Micronesia. Ripley and Birckhead (1942:2) classify this species as "Old Stock," along with P. monachus, P. coronulatus and P. regina. Its pathway of invasion to the Marianas was probably directly northward from the Papuan area and not by way of the Polynesian islands. Its resemblance to the species P. regina of southern Papua, Lesser Sundas, and Australia is most unusual, especially since there is a separation between the two species of some 1,400 miles; this is pointed out by Ripley and Birckhead (1942:4). As I have said (1948:59) elsewhere, "On the basis of its characters the Mariana birds would merit only subspecific separation, but owing to the great distance between the two doves and the possibility of independent origin and subsequent convergence, it may be more advisable to continue to regard the two as separate species."

=Ducula oceanica monacha= (Momiyama)

Micronesian Pigeon

Globicera oceanica monacha Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, March, 1922, p. 4. (Type locality, Yap.)

Columba oceanica Lesson and Garnot (part), Dict. Sci. Nat., éd. Levrault, 40, 1826, p. 317 (Pelew); Lesson (part), Man. d'Ornith., 2, 1828, p. 166 (Pelew); idem (part), Voy. "La Coquille," Zool., 2, 1828, pp. 432, 709 (Pelew); idem, Compl. de Buffon, 2d ed., 2, Oiseaux, 1838, p. 292 (Pelew); Prévost and Knip, Les Pigeons, 2, 1838-43, p. 49 (Pelew).

Carpophaga oceanica Hartlaub (part), Archiv. f. Naturgesch., 18, 1852, p. 115 (Pelewinseln); idem, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1867 (1868), p. 830 (Pelew); Gray (part), Hand-list Birds, 2, 1870, p. 229 (Pelew); Hartlaub and Finsch (part), Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, pp. 89, 101 (Pelew); Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 5, 26 (Palau); idem (part), Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1877 (1878), pp. 775, 780 (Palau); Salvadori (part), Cronaca del R. Liceo-Ginnasio Cavour, 1878, pp. 3, 8 (Pelew); idem, Ibis, 1879, p. 364 (Pelew); Tristram, Cat. Birds, 1889, p. 42 (Pelew); Wiglesworth (part), Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 52 (Pelew); Matschie (part), Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 113 (Palau); Dubois (part), Syn. Avium, 2, 1904, p. 743 (Pelew); Reichenow (part), Die Vögel, 1, 1913, p. 351 (Palau).