Part 73

=Caloenas nicobarica pelewensis= Finsch

Nicobar Pigeon

Caloenas nicobarica var. pelewensis Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, p. 159 (in reprint p. 27). (Type locality, Palau.)

Caloenas nicobarica pelewensis Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 77 (Pelew); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 188 (Palau); Peters, Check-list Birds World, 3, 1937, p. 139 (Palau); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 210 (Babelthuap, Koror); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 291 (Palau); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 62 (Garakayo).

Caloenas nicobarica Salvadori, Ornith. Papuasia, 3, 1882, p. 211 (Pelew); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und. Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 57 (Pelew).

Caloenas pelewensis Salvadori, Cat. Birds British Mus., 21, 1893, p. 618 (Pelew); Bolau, Mitteil. Naturhist. Mus. Hamburg, 1898, p. 69 (Palau); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 113 (Palau); Reichenow, Die Vögel, 1, 1913, p. 328 (Palauinseln); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 52 (Pelew).

Caloenas nicobaricus pelewensis Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 53 (Pelew).

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

Characters.--Adult: A large heavy-bodied pigeon with head, neck, and upper breast blackish; rest of plumage metallic bluish-green with coppery sheen; wings glossy green; tail and under tail-coverts white; feathers of hind-neck long and lanceolate; bill heavy and slightly hooked with lump at base.

Resembles C. n. nicobarica (Linnaeus), but slightly smaller and with upper parts metallic bluish-green and underparts darker and less green.

Measurements.--One adult female measures: wing, 232; tail, 82; culmen, 31; tarsus, 44; one immature female: wing, 236; tail, 89; culmen, 32; tarsus, 45.

Specimens examined.--Total number, three females from Palau Islands, AMNH--exact locality not given (undated).

Remarks.--C. nicobarica is distributed from the Nicobar Islands east through Malaysia to Melanesia as a single undifferentiated form. In the northeasternmost part of its range, in the Palau Islands, it exhibits geographic variation and is considered to be subspecifically distinct from the rest of the population. C. nicobarica appears to have no close relatives. It may represent the last remnant of some ancient group of pigeons.

The Nicobar Pigeon is rare. Coultas, who visited the islands in 1931, did not obtain the bird. The only specimens available for study are those in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History taken by Kubary in the period between 1870 and 1880. The NAMRU2 party did not obtain specimens but saw the bird on five occasions at the island of Garakayo in the middle Palaus. The writer expected the bird to be ground-living in habit, but the individuals, which I saw at Garakayo, were either perched on scrubby vegetation on high and inaccessible cliffs or were flying high overhead. In its flight overhead, the short, white tail was a particularly conspicuous mark of identification. The flight reminded me very much of that of the Black Vulture (Córagyps atrátus) of North America. No birds were found at Peleliu or Angaur, and the small population of this pigeon that remains is probably restricted to uninhabited coral islets, as Mayr (1945a:291) has already noted. Marshall (1949: 207) saw one bird on Peleliu and one on Koror in November and December, 1945. This endemic subspecies is probably on the road to extinction unless governmental protection can be established and enforced.

=Trichoglossus rubiginosus= (Bonaparte)

Ponapé Lory

Chalcopsitta rubiginosus Bonaparte, Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, 30, February, 1850, p. 134; Consp. Avium, 1, after April 15, 1850, p. 3. (Type locality, "ex Insulis Barabay et Guebe," error = Ponapé.)

Chalcopsitta rubiginosus Bonaparte, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1850, p. 26, pl. 16 ("Ins. Barabay et Guebe," error = Ponapé); Pelzeln, Reise "Novara," Vögel, 1865, pp. 99, 162 (Puynipet); Reichenow, Journ. f. Ornith., 1881, p. 162 ("Nordwestl. Polynessische subregion Carolinen" = Ponapé); Tristram, Cat. Birds, 1889, p. 73 (Ponapé); Finsch, Deut. Verein zum Schultze der Vogelwelt, 18, 1893, p. 458 (Carolinen = Ponapé); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 112 (Ponapé).

Domicella rubiginosa Finsch, Die Papageien, 2, 1868, p. 781 (Puynipet); Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, p. 88 (Puinipet).

Lorius rubiginosus Gray, Hand-list Birds, 2, 1870, p. 153 (Puynipet); Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, 3, no. 38, 1874, p. 58 (Puynipet).

Lorius rubiginosa Giebel, Thes. Ornith., 2, 1875, p. 502 (Senjawin = Ponapé).

Trichoglossus rubiginosus Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 12, 1876, pp. 17, 18 (Ponapé); idem, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1877 (1878), p. 778 (Ponapé); idem, Journ. f. Ornith., 1880, p. 284 (Ponapé); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, p. 281 (Ponapé); Finsch, Ibis, 1881, pp. 110, 111, 114 (Ponapé); idem, Mitth. Ornith. Ver. Wien, 1884, p. 49 (Ponapé); Hartert, Kat. Vogelsamml. Senckenb., 1891, p. 161 (Puypinet); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6 1890-1891 (1891), p. 8 (Ponapé); Peters, Check-list Birds World, 3, 1937, p. 151 (Ponapé); Mayr, Proc. Sixth Pac. Sci. Congr., 4, 1941, p. 204 (Ponapé); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 201 (Ponapé); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 291 (Ponapé).

Eos rubiginosa Salvadori, Ornith. Papuasia, 1, 1880, p. 267 (Puynipet); idem, Cat. Birds British Mus., 20, 1891, p. 29 (Ponapé); Christian, The Caroline Islands, 1899, p. 357 (Ponapé); Finsch, Notes Leyden Mus., 22, 1900, p. 142 (Ponapé); Dubois, Syn. Avium, 1902, p. 29 (Puinipet); Uchida, Annot. Zool. Japon., 9, 1918, pp. 484, 493 (Ponapé); Wetmore, in Townsend and Wetmore, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoöl., 63, 1919, p. 192 (Ponapé).

Chalcopsittacus rubiginosus Finsch, Sammlung wissensch. Vorträge, 14th Ser., 1900, p. 639 (Ponapé).

Oenopsittacus rubiginosus Reichenow, Die Vögel, 1, 1913, p. 443 (Karolinen = Ponapé); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 58 (Ponapé); Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 295 (Ponapé); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 181 (Ponapé).

Eos rubiginosus Takastukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 53 (Ponapé).

Geographic range.--Micronesia: Caroline Islands--Ponapé.

Characters.--Adult: A medium-sized, dark raspberry-red lory with head and nape deep purplish-red; upper back, scapulars, and upper wing-coverts raspberry-red, edged with blackish; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts more purplish; tail yellowish-green becoming more yellow and less green toward tip; wings black with outer webs olivaceous-green; outer edges of primaries more yellowish; lores, chin, auriculars, sides of head, and neck deep purplish-red, chin feathers faintly barred with raspberry and edged with blackish; throat, breast, abdomen, and flanks raspberry-red, feathers edged with blackish except on lower abdomen; under tail-coverts orange-red, under wing-coverts deep purple with black edges; bill of male orange, of female paler yellow; feet black; iris of male light yellowish-orange, of female grayish-white.