Part 70

Phlegoenas canifrons Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 5, 27, pl. 5, fig. 1 (Palau); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, p. 407 (Palau); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 57 (Pelew); Hartert; Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 61 (Pelew); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 113 (Palau); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 53 (Pelews).

Phlogoenas canifrons Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1877, p. 112 (Pelew); Salvadori, Ornith.] Papuasia, 3, 1882, p. 169 (Pelew); idem, Cat. Birds British Mus., 21, 1893, p. 592 (Pelew); Oustalet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, (3), 7, 1895, p. 227 (Palaos); Bolau. Mitteil. Naturhist. Mus. Hamburg, 1898, p. 68 (Palau); Dubois, Syn. Avium, 2, 1904, p. 772 (Pelew).

Phaps canifrons Giebel, Thes. Ornith., 3, 1877, p. 89 (Pelew).

Gallicolumba canifrons canifrons Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 74 (Pelew).

Gallicolumba canifrons Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 189 (Palau); Mayr, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 828, 1936, p. 4 (Palau); Peters, Check-list Birds World, 3, 1937, p. 136 (Palau); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 211 (Babelthuap); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 290 (Palau); Mayr, Audubon Mag., 47, 1945, p. 282 (Palau); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 62 (Garakayo, Peleliu).

Geographic range.--Micronesia: Palau Islands--Babelthuap, Koror, Garakayo, Peleliu, Ngabad, Angaur.

Characters.--Adult male: A small, ground dove with forehead, crown, sides of head, chin, throat, and breast ashy gray, lighter on forehead, chin, and throat, and washed with "light vinaceous-faun" on breast; occiput, nape and mantle dark "ferruginous"; rest of upper parts glossed with bronze-olive; lesser and middle wing-coverts tipped with metallic purple; wings reddish-brown with dark brown tips; under side of wing reddish-brown to brown; abdomen, vent and under tail-coverts dark grayish-brown; tail colored like back, outer feathers have a paler brown terminal band rather obscure; bill horn colored; feet red; iris brown.

Female: A female molting into adult plumage is cinnamon colored, mottled with dark brown; on the back an olive-green sheen is beginning to appear; tail brown with some greenish sheen; tips of tail edged with light brown; bill and feet light brown.

Measurements.--Measurements of six adult males are: wing, 112-119 (115); tail, 65-72 (70); exposed culmen, 15.3-16.1 (15.7); tarsus, 30.1-31.2 (30.8); of one female in postjuvenal molt: wing, 107; tail, 69; exposed culmen, 17.1; tarsus, 30.

Specimens examined.--Total number, 8 (7 males, 1 female), as follows: Palau Islands, USNM--Koror, 1 (Nov. 18)--Garakayo, 2 (Sept. 17, 19)--Peleliu, 2 (Sept. 1, Dec. 5)--Ngabad, 1 (Sept. 11); AMNH--exact locality not given, 1 (Dec. 1).

Food habits.--Stomachs of specimens taken by the NAMRU2 party at Peleliu and Garakayo contained one and one-half to two cc. of hard seeds and seed parts.

Remarks.--The Palau Ground Dove, according to Amadon (1943:19), is a member of a superspecies containing G. hoedti (Wetar), G. beccarii (New Guinea, Bismarcks, Solomons), G. sanctaecrucis (Santa Cruz, New Hebrides), and G. stairi (central Polynesia).

G. canifrons apparently came to the Palaus from either New Guinea or the region of the Bismarck Archipelago, evolving from G. beccarii or some related form. The Palau Ground Dove has a copper-colored occiput, nape, and shoulder patch, but otherwise it resembles this Melanesian species, G. beccarii. Amadon (1943:20) discusses two types of plumage of females in G. stairi; one is a male type of plumage. The lack of female specimens prevents me from determining whether this characteristic is present in G. canifrons.

Coultas (field notes) had difficulty in obtaining even one specimen of G. canifrons in the Palaus in 1931. He concluded that either the bird was practically extinct or that he just could not find it. From the experience of the NAMRU2 party in the southern Palaus in 1945, I would think that he merely did not find the bird. Although it is probably rare in comparison with some other members of the family Columbidae of these islands, we found this bird on most of the islands visited.

The NAMRU2 party arrived at Palau expecting to find the ground dove a fairly conspicuous member of the avifauna and expecting to see it sitting in trees and flying across the roads much in the same manner as did the ground dove at Guam, G. x. xanthonura. At first, we did not find the bird, but in the dense jungles a low, penetrating, and intermittent, call was heard which may be described as a moan. This was the call of the ground dove. The bird was difficult to discover because its color blended so well with the shadows and dark background of the coral rocks and forest litter. The bird was very active and moved along rapidly pecking at food particles. Also it was wary. Once the distinctive call note was recognized, it was not difficult to locate the area in which the bird was living; however, finding the bird was difficult. On one occasion I stalked a dove for at least a half an hour knowing that it was always within fifty yards of me. A bird that was flushed, flew about twenty-five feet and dropped down in open forest litter and disappeared. On the basis of specimens collected and call notes heard, I estimate that the population of the Palau Ground Dove on the islands visited in 1945 was as follows: Peleliu--a minimum of 15 (found in most forested areas which were not greatly damaged by the invasion operations); Garakayo--a minimum of 10 (the doves were found to live equally well on the steep hillsides or in flat jungle on this islet); Ngabad--5 to 10 (doves were heard in several areas on this small islet); Angaur--not estimated (one call was heard in brush near the edge of a fresh water lake).

=Gallicolumba xanthonura xanthonura= (Temminck)

White-throated Ground Dove

Columba xanthonura Temminck, Pl. col., livr. 32, 1823, pl. 190. (Type locality, Mariannes.)

Columba xanthonura Lesson, Compl. de Buffon, 2nd ed., 2, Oiseaux, 1838, p. 281 (Mariannes).

Columba Pampusan Quoy and Gaimard, Voy. "Uranie," Zool., 1824, pp. 121, 681, pl. 30 (Mariannes); Dumont, Dict. Sci. Nat., ed. Levrault, 40, 1826, p. 345 (Guam); Lesson, Traité d'Ornith., 1831, p. 471 (Mariannes); Hartlaub, Journ. f. Ornith., 1854, p. 167 (Mariannen).

Columba erythroptera Lesson, Traité d'Ornith., 1831, p. 471 (Mariannes); Kittlitz, Obser. Zool., in Lutké, Voy. "Le Séniavine," 3, 1836, p. 305 (Guahan); Hartlaub, Journ. f. Ornith., 1854, p. 167 (Mariannen).

Columba xanthura Prévost and Knip, Les Pigeons, 2, 1838-43, p. 45, pl. 23 (Guam).

Pampusana xanthua Bonaparte, Consp. Avium, 2, 1854, p. 89 (Mariannis); idem, Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, 40, 1855, p. 207 (Mariannes); Reichenbach, Tauben, 1861, p. 39 (Guam).

Caloenas (Pampusana) xanthura Gray, Cat. Birds Trop. Is. Pacific Ocean, 1859, p. 45 (Guam).

Phlegoenas erythroptera Reichenbach, Tauben, 1861, p. 41 (Mariannen).

Caloenas xanthura Gray, Hand-list Birds, 2, 1870, p. 247 (Marian).

Phlegoenas yapensis Hartlaub and Finsch, 1872, p. 102 (Type locality, Uap); Gräffe, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 2, 1873, pp. 122, 123 (Yap); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, p. 391 (Yap); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 57 (Yap); Hartert, Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 61 (Yap); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 113 (Yap).

Pampusana rousseaui Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, p. 103 (Marianne).