Part 75

Cuculus taitensis Sparrman, Mus. Carls., fasc, 2, 1787, pl. 32. (No type locality = Tahiti.)

Eudynamis tahitiensis Gräffe, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 2, 1873, p. 123 (Yap).

Eudynamis taitiensis Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, p. 49 (Palau); idem, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 12, 1876, pp. 17, 20 (Ponapé); idem, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1877 (1878), p. 778 (Ponapé); idem, Journ. f. Ornith., 1880, pp. 284, 298 (Ponapé, Kuschai, Palaos, Marshalls); idem, Ibis, 1880, pp. 331, 332 (Taluit); idem, Ibis, 1881, pp. 104, 108, 113, 114 (Kushai, Uleai, Ponapé); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, pp. 281, 299, 353 (Ponapé, Mortlock, Ruk); Christian, The Caroline Islands, 1899, p. 358 (Ponapé).

Urodynamis taitensis Finsch, Mitth. Ornith. Ver. Wien, 1884, p. 53 (Jaluit, Ponapé, Palau); Bogert, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 933, 1937, p. 9 (Palau, Ruk, Kusaie, Ponapé, Truk, Iringlove, Wozzie, Auru, Jaluit, Ratak); Peters, Check-list Birds World, 4, 1940, p. 40 (Palaus, Carolines, Marshall); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 201 (Palau, Truk, Lukunor, Ponapé, Kusaie, Jaluit, Elmore, Aurh, Wotze).

Urodynamis taitiensis Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 11 (Pelew, Ualan, Ponapé, Luganor, Taluit); idem, Ibis, 1893, p. 212 (Marshalls); Hartert, Novit. Zool., 7, 1900, p. 7 (Ruk); Finsch, Notes Leyden Mus., 22, 1900, p. 120 (Ponapé, Palau, Kuschai, Ruk, Mortlock, Uleai, Jaluit); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 52 (Ruk); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 58 (Pelew, Ualan, Ponapé, Luganor, Ruk, Taluit); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 180 (Palau, Kusaie, Ponapé, Luganor, Truk, Jaluit, Elmore, Aurh, Wotze).

Urdynamis taitiensis Finsch, Sammulung wissensch. Vorträge, 14th ser., 1900, p. 659 (Palau).

Eudynamis taitiensis Schnee, Zool. Jahrbücher, 20, 1904, p. 389 (Marshalls); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 302 (Micronesia).

Geographic range.--Breeds in New Zealand and adjacent islands. Winters chiefly in Polynesia, also Melanesia and Micronesia. In Micronesia: Palau Islands--exact locality unknown; Caroline Islands--Yap, Lukunor, Truk, Ponapé, Kusaie; Marshall Islands--Jaluit, Elmore, Auru, Wotze, Bikini.

Characters.--Adult: A large, long-tailed cuckoo with upper parts dark brown; top of head spotted with white; wings, upper back and tail barred with rufous; underparts pale rufous or buffy-rufous with shafts of feathers streaked with brown.

Specimens examined.--Total number, 4 (2 males, 2 females), as follows: Caroline Islands, AMNH--Truk, 1 (Jan. 7)--Kusaie, 2 (March); Marshall Islands, USNM--Bikini, 1 (May 1).

Remarks.--Bogert (1937) has summarized the information known concerning the migration of the New Zealand Long-tailed Cuckoo. Its principal winter range is in eastern and central Polynesia: Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Union, Cook, Society, and Tuamotu islands. The bird reaches the northern extent of its range in the Marshall and Caroline islands (see map in Bogert, 1937:3-4). There are no records for the Marianas and only one record from the Palaus (taken by Peters, as recorded by Finsch, 1875:49). The bird is seemingly much more numerous as a winter visitor in the Marshall Islands than in the Caroline Islands. Coultas (field notes) writes that the cuckoo appears at Kusaie about the first of February. Bogert (1937) remarks that the cuckoo arrives at New Zealand for the breeding period in October or November and leaves for the northern wintering grounds in February or March.

Bogert (1937:11) discusses briefly the history of migration of this bird. She presents as a possible reason for the migration the fact that the cuckoo feeds principally on caterpillars and that as a consequence it moves northward to the tropics during the winter months because this food is not available at the breeding grounds in the winter months. Perhaps this cuckoo in developing its ability to fly long distances over water on migration has expanded the breadth of its range eastward into the oceanic islands, rather than westward through Malaysia and Melanesia, because it has found less competition from resident birds and from other migrants for feed and habitat. On many of the islands and atolls of the Pacific Basin, this species is the only land bird known.

=Otus podarginus= (Hartlaub and Finsch)

Palau Scops Owl

Noctua podargina Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, p. 90. (Type locality, Pelew Islands.)

Noctua podargina Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 4, 8, pl. 1, fig. 1 and 2 (Palau); Giebel, Thes. Ornith., 2, 1875, p. 720 (Pelew); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, p. 407 (Palau).

Ninox podargina Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 2, 1875, p. 151 (Palau); Bolau, Mitteil. Naturhist. Mus. Hamburg, 1898, p. 51 (Palau); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 61 (Pelew); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 181 (Palau).

Scops podargina Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 2, 1875, p. 313 (Palau); Nehrkorn, Journ. f. Ornith., 1879, p. 394 (Palau); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 3 (Pelew); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 112 (Palau); Dubois, Syn. Avium, 2, 1904, p. 883 (Pelew).

P[isorhina] podargina Reichenow, Die Vögel, 1913, p. 424 (Palau).

Otus podarginus Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 268 (Palau); Mayr. Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 1269, 1944, p. 3 (Palau); idem, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 291 (Palau).

Pyrroglaux podargina Yamashina, Tori, 10, 1938, p. 1 (Pelew); Peters, Check-list Birds World, 4, 1940, p. 109 (Babelthuap, Koror); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 202 (Palau).

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

Characters.--Adult male: A small owl with forehead and superciliary area whitish tinged with buff and narrowly barred blackish-brown; feathers at base of upper mandible with long, blackish shafts, crown and back rufous-brown; some feathers on neck narrowly barred ochraceous and black; some scapulars with outer webs barred dark brown and white; rump and upper tail-coverts dark rufous, barred white and dark brown; tail rufous, barred indistinctly dark brown, inner webs barred white and dark brown; wings sandy rufous, outer edges of all but first primary spotted buffy-white; lores rufous, shafts white; indistinct eye ring rufous; ear-coverts whitish with rufous tips, chin white; throat white narrowly barred with wavy dark lines and tipped with rufous; breast pale rufous, feathers barred with white and black; abdomen paler rufous; under tail-coverts often barred with black and white without rufous wash; under wing-coverts white barred with dark brown; bill and feet whitish; iris brown.

Adult female: Resembles adult male, but darker brown above with fine vermiculations of blackish color; underparts may be pale or dark rufous with slight or heavy white and brown barrings and spots.

Immature: Resembles adult male, but upper parts darker brown; forehead, crown, and back barred ochraceous and black; scapulars with white shaft streaks and spots of white; underparts more heavily barred.

Measurements.--Eight males measure: wing, 155-163 (159); tail, 82-88 (84); culmen, 22.0-23.5 (23.0); tarsus, 32-35 (33); two females measure: wing, 158, 165; tail, 83, 90; culmen, 23.5, 24.0; tarsus, 33, 35.

Specimens examined.--Total number, 11 (9 males, 2 females), as follows: Palau Islands, USNM--Koror, 1 (Nov. 3); AMNH--exact locality not given, 10 (Oct., Nov., Dec.).

Remarks.--Coultas (field notes) found the Palau Scops Owl fairly common around villages on the island of Koror. He obtained specimens at night with the use of a flashlight. He writes that the bird moves about considerably remaining on one perch and calling for only approximately three minutes. The bird stays in the mangrove thickets in the daylight hours. Marshall (1949:207) also found the owl at Koror as well as at Peleliu in 1945. He observed 33 pairs on Koror (approximately one-half of the total population) and four pairs on Peleliu. The NAMRU2 party did not find the owl in the southern Palaus in 1945.