Part 77

Kelso (1938:138) records the Short-eared Owl from Kusaie on the basis of a specimen taken by Gulick, which Ridgway (1882:367) thought came from the West Indies. The specimen is labeled Strong's Island, which is an old name for Kusaie. Kelso gives the measurements of this bird as: wing, 275; tail, 141; culmen from cere, 19.5, and comments that the wings are shorter than those of specimens from Asia. The skin is in the U. S. National Museum.

The Short-eared Owl at Ponapé closely resembles A. f. flammeus but is slightly smaller and darker. Apparently the owl came to Ponapé as a straggler on migration from Asia, and becoming acclimated and adapted to the grassy areas at Ponapé remained as a resident. The occurrence of A. f. flammeus in the Marianas on migration offers evidence as to how the bird originally reached Ponapé.

=Caprimulgus indicus jotaka= Temminck and Schlegel

Jungle Nightjar

Caprimulgus jotaka Temminck and Schlegel, in Siebold's Fauna Japonica, Aves, 1847, p. 37, pl. 12, 13. (Type locality, Japan.)

Caprimulgus indicus jotaka Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 179 (Palau); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 199 (Palau); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 302 (Palau).

Geographic range.--Breeds in eastern Asia and Japan. Winters south to tropics. In Micronesia: Palau Islands--exact locality unknown.

Remarks.--According to the committee who prepared the Hand-list of Japanese Birds (Hachisuka et al., 1942:199), one female was obtained by Oba in the Palaus in November, 1930. The skin was placed in the Kuroda collection. Coultas obtained a male on December 9, 1931, in the Palaus, which is in the American Museum of Natural History. The bird is apparently an occasional migrant to western Micronesia.

=Caprimulgus indicus phalaena= Hartlaub and Finsch

Jungle Nightjar

Caprimulgus phalaena Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, p. 91. (Type locality, Pelew.)

Caprimulgus phalaena Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 4, 13, pl. 2, fig. 1, 2 (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. 17 (Pelew); Hartert, Cat. Birds British Mus., 16, 1892, p. 545 (Pelew); idem, Das Tierreich, no. 1, 1897, p. 51 (Palau); Bolau, Mitteil. Naturhist. Mus. Hamburg, 1898, p. 65 (Palau); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 112 (Palau); Dubois, Syn. Avium 1, 1902, p. 124 (Pelew); Reichenow, Die Vögel, 2, 1914, p. 154 (Palau); Mathews, Syst. Avium. Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 396 (Pelew); Hachisuka, Birds Philippines, 2, 1934, p. 120 (Pelew).

Caprimulgus indicus phalaena Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 61 (Pelew); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 179 (Palau); Peters, Check-list Birds World, 4, 1940, p. 204 (Palau); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 199 (Babelthuap, Koror); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 292 (Palau).

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

Characters.--Adult male: "Above grayish-brown, very finely vermiculated, more rufous on the back, with large longitudinal streaks and a few cross markings; scapulars partly with pale buff bands, mostly pale gray at the basal portion; primaries deep brown, with a white spot to the inner web of the first primary not extending to the shaft, second and third primary with fine spots to the inner web extending to the shaft and obsolete white spots to the outer web, fourth primary with a smaller and less pure white spot; chin and throat blackish brown, barred with rufous, with two white spots on the throat; breast brownish gray, vermiculated and spotted with brown and blackish; abdomen dirty ochraceous buff barred with brown, the bars wider on the lower tail-coverts; retrices rufous-brown with blackish bars, outer ones with broad white terminal spots." (Hartert, 1892:545.) Bill basally whitish with black tip; feet blackish pink; iris dark brown.

Adult female: According to Hartert (1892:545) similar to male, but with small, more or less obsolete, rufous-buff (not white) spots on the primaries; rectrices without white spots.

Immature: Resembles adult but paler and less distinctly marked.

C. i. phalaena resembles C. i. jotaka, but is paler; the male is more broadly barred and more buffy on abdomen and under side of tail; the female has paler spots on wing.

Measurements.--Measurements of four males: wing, 161-168 (165); tail, 118-129 (124); culmen, 22; tarsus, 14.0-15.1 (14.5); of four females: wing, 161-165 (163); tail, 118-127 (123); culmen, 22; tarsus, 14.5-15.6 (15.1).

Specimens examined.--Total number, 8 (4 males, 4 females), as follows: Palau Islands, USNM--Koror, 3 (Nov. 3, 20, 29); AMNH--exact locality not given, 5 (Oct., Nov., Dec.).

Remarks.--This subspecies of the Jungle Nightjar is restricted to the Palau Islands and particularly to those islands possessing damp, shady forests and mangrove swamps. In September, 1945, two birds were observed at the edge of a mangrove swamp at Garakayo at twilight by the NAMRU2 party, but neither of them was taken. Coultas (field notes) found the nightjar in mangrove swamps. He writes that they remain quiet there during the daylight hours. He took specimens both in the evening and at dawn. He considers the bird as not very common. Marshall (1949:208) obtained specimens at Koror in 1945.

Among the races of C. indicus, the coloration of C. i. phalaena resembles most closely that of C. i. jotaka; probably C. i. phalaena was derived from C. i. jotaka of Asia. Apparently this bird arrived at the Palaus by way of the Philippines. It is found only in these islands of Micronesia and maybe another one of that group of species which reached the Palaus without expanding their ranges farther into Micronesia.

=Collocalia inexpectata pelewensis= Mayr

Edible Nest Swiftlet

Collocalia pelewensis Mayr, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 820, 1935, p. 3. (Type locality, Palau Islands.)

Collocalia vanicorensis Hartlaub, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1867 (1868), p. 829 (Pelew); Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1868, pp. 4, 116, 118 (Pelew); idem, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, p. 89 (Pelew); Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 4, 15 (Palau); idem (part), Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 12, 1876, pp. 17, 24 (Palau); idem (part), Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880, p. 575 (Palaos); idem (part), Ibis, 1881, p. 104 (Pelew); Tristram, Cat. Birds, 1889, p. 111 (Pelew); Wiglesworth (part), Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 18 (Pelew); Matschie (part), Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 112 (Palau).

Collocalia vanikorensis Gray, Hand-list Birds, 1, 1869, p. 66 (Pelew); Giebel, Thes. Ornith., 1, 1872, p. 737 (Pelew).

Collocalia fuciphaga Oustalet (part), Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, (3), 7, 1895, p. 189 (Palaos); Reichenow, Die Vögel, 2, 1914, p. 161 (Palau).