Part 74

Immature: Resembles adult, but with narrow and more sharply pointed tail feathers.

Measurements.--Measurements are presented in table 29.

TABLE 29. MEASUREMENTS OF Trichoglossus rubiginosus

===============+=====+===========+===========+=========+========= | | | | Culmen | Sex | No. | Wing | Tail | from | Tarsus | | | | cere | ---------------+-----+-----------+-----------+---------+--------- Adult males | 18 | 147 | 105 | 20 | 16 | | (143-153) | (100-110) | (19-20) | (15-17) | | | | | Adult females | 13 | 142 | 101 | 19 | 16 | | (141-146) | (98-104) | (18-19) | (15-17) ---------------+-----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------

Specimens examined.--Total number, 31 (18 males, 13 females), as follows: Caroline Islands, USNM--Ponapé, 2 (Feb. 12); AMNH--Ponapé, 29 (Nov.).

Nesting.--According to Coultas (field notes) the nest is placed in the top of a coconut tree or in a hollow of a large forest tree. He says that one egg is laid, but does not record dates of nesting. Four of the birds taken by Coultas at Ponapé in November had swollen gonads.

Molt.--Specimens taken in November by Coultas were either in fresh plumage or were completing the molt when obtained.

Parasites.--Uchida (1918:484, 493) found the bird lice (Mallophaga), Psittaconirmus harrisoni and Eomenopon denticulatus, on the Ponapé Lory.

Remarks.--There is little written information concerning the habits of the Ponapé lory. Mayr (1945a:291) describes the bird as being "very noisy" and with "habits apparently similar to T. haematodus." Coultas made a number of observations on this species; some of these unpublished notes are essentially as follows: Trichoglossus is common on Ponapé. It is found everywhere on the island, preferring the coconut palms; it is noisy and quarrelsome. The parrot travels usually in small groups of two to six or eight birds, keeping up a continuous chatter all of the time. This chatter quiets down into a very pleasant-sounding crooning-tone after sunset. Trichoglossus is a continual nuisance to the hunter, inquisitive and easily attracted by the slightest noise, to which the bird responds with a frantic yapping that frightens everything within a radius of a mile. One sometimes finds a bird alone working quietly about among the low trees of the high mountain ridges. The natives' name for the bird, "se ridt," means "always hide out in rain." The bird stays under a big leaf and keeps dry during the rain. This lory is intelligent, easily tamed, and sometimes learns to repeat a few words.

Evolutionary history of Trichoglossus rubiginosus.--The Ponapé Lory is the only native parrot in Micronesia. It is an aberrant species and seemingly is of long residence on the island, as indicated by its differences from related forms to the southward and southwestward. The bird shows some relationships to T. ornatus (Linnaeus) of Celebes, but the plumage of T. rubiginosus lacks the brilliant red, green, and yellow of this bird. The plumage of the Ponapé Lory is also softer in texture; this is a character exhibited also by other Micronesian birds, for example, Cleptornus and Colluricincla. T. rubiginosus and T. ornatus correspond, however, in having the feathers of the breast edged with blackish. T. rubiginosus resembles also T. flavovirides of Celebes and Sula in that the edges of the feathers of the breast are dark, no markings are present on the inner web of the wing, and feathers of the upper back are edged with dark coloring. T. rubiginosus may have been derived from either of these two species; however, it shows a close relationship also to the T. haematodus group from the Papuan region. In any case, the Ponapé Lory, isolated in Micronesia, has not the multicolored plumage of its relatives and has, instead, a rather uniformly colored plumage. The presence of this parrot at only a single island in Micronesia is difficult to explain; perhaps at one time the bird was more widely distributed in Micronesia, or it may be that the population represents a single successful invasion to Ponapé. Like Aplonis pelzelni, another endemic species at Ponapé, this lory may have reached the island as a straggler, perhaps being carried north by the prevailing winds in the post-nesting season.

=Cuculus canorus telephonus= Heine

Common Cuckoo

Cuculus telephonus Heine, Journ. f. Ornith., 1863, p. 332. (Type locality, Japan.)

Cuculus canorus Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, pp. 89, 100 (Pelew); Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 4, 12 (Palau); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 10 (Pelew); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 63 (Pelew).

Cuculus canorus telephonus Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 57 (Pelew); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 181 (Palau); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 201 (Palau); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 302 (Palau).

Geographic range.--Breeds in northeastern Asia and Japan. Winters south to India, Malaysia, and Melanesia. In Micronesia: Palau Islands--exact locality not given.

Remarks.--The Common Cuckoo is a straggler on winter migration to the Palau Islands.

=Cuculus saturatus horsfieldi= Moore

Oriental Cuckoo

Cuculus horsfieldi Moore, in Moore and Horsfield, Cat. Birds Mus. Hon. East-India Co., 2, 1856-58 (1857), p. 703. (Type locality, Java.)

Cuculus striatus Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, pp. 89, 100 (Pelew); Finsch. Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 4, 12 (Palau); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 63 (Pelew).

Cuculus intermedius Wiglesworth. Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 10 (Pelew).

Cuculus optatus optatus Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 57 (Pelew); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 181 (Palau).

Cuculus saturatus horsfieldi Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 201 (Babelthuap, Koror); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 302 (Palau).

Geographic range.--Breeds in eastern Asia and Japan. Winters south to India, Malaysia, and Melanesia. In Micronesia: Palau Islands--Babelthuap, Koror.

Remarks.--The Oriental Cuckoo reaches the Palau Islands as a winter visitor. On November 11 and 25 of 1931, Coultas obtained four immature birds at Palau near taro swamps. The natives told him that the cuckoo visited the islands each year from December to June. On September 21 at Angaur the NAMRU2 party saw one bird which may have been this cuckoo.

=Eudynamis taitensis= (Sparrman)

Long-tailed New Zealand Cuckoo