Part 84

Molt.--Most of the specimens taken by Coultas in November and December are either worn or in molt.

Parasites.--Bequaert (1939:82 and 1941:290) records a fly (Hippoboscidae), Ornithoica pusilla, from the Micronesian Kingfisher at Ponapé.

Remarks.--The difference in coloration between the adults and immatures has resulted in considerable confusion concerning the taxonomy of this subspecies. According to Wiglesworth (1891a:15), the name Halcyon reichenbachii was established by Gustav Hartlaub in 1852 for a kingfisher with a white abdomen in the Dresden Museum, which had been figured by Reichenbach (Synopsis Avium, Alcedineae, 1851) and called Todiramphus cinnamomina. This specimen had been mislabeled and Hartlaub and Finsch (1868a:4), noting a resemblance between this bird and specimens from the Palau Islands, used the name H. reichenbachii for the birds from the Palaus. Later, when specimens from Ponapé were taken, Hartlaub's bird was found to be identical with them; thus the name H. reichenbachii could be restricted to the bird at Ponapé, and Wiglesworth supplied the new name H. pelewensis for the population at Palau. H. mediocris was used by Sharpe to designate the cinnamon-breasted birds at Ponapé, because they were assumed to belong to a species different from the white-breasted ones. This confused situation was not clarified until additional collections were obtained by the Japanese.

Coultas (field notes) comments on the conspicuously different field characters of the two color types in this bird. In 1930, he found the bird common and usually in marginal habitat in the lowlands and at the edges of mangrove swamps.

Evolutionary history of Halcyon cinnamomina.--The three races of kingfishers belonging to the species H. cinnamomina have been derived from H. chloris. The principal distinction between the two species is the presence of the cinnamon coloring in H. cinnamomina, although within H. chloris there are some subspecies possessing traces of this coloration. The link between these two species, as pointed out to me by Mayr, appears to be H. chloris matthias Heinroth of the St. Matthias and Squally islands, which is colored like H. chloris except that on the head, especially on the occiput, there is a faint wash of color ranging from buff to ochre. This coloration of the head is a step toward the condition in the Micronesian populations of H. cinnamomina.

In H. c. pelewensis and H. c. reichenbachii, the adult birds resemble each other, although the former subspecies is slightly smaller. The immatures of H. c. reichenbachii, however, possess cinnamon coloring on the cheeks, sides of body, and breast in addition to that present on the crown and nape. The crown and nape are of this same color in the adults. In the subspecies at Guam, H. c. cinnamomina, the adult male has the immature type of plumage found in H. c. reichenbachii. The female of H. c. cinnamomina has this cinnamon coloring on the throat, but the breast, abdomen and under tail are white. The original stock from which the Micronesian birds came may have invaded the area via the Palau Islands, although Mayr (1940) is of the opinion that they reached Micronesia via Ponapé (eastern Carolines) and spread to Guam and Palau. He states further (1942b:181, 182) that the presence of H. cinnamomina and H. chloris as reproductively isolated groups in the Palaus may not indicate that they are distinct species, but that they represent the overlap of terminal links of the same species, which have diverged to such an extent as to leave these terminal links reproductively isolated.

=Halcyon chloris teraokai= Kuroda

White-collared Kingfisher

Halcyon chloris teraokai Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 56, pl. 3, fig. 3. (Type locality, Pelew.)

Halcyon albicilla Hartlaub, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1867 (1868), p. 828 (Pelew); Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1868, pp. 4, 118 (Pelew); Gray (part), Hand-list Birds, 1, 1869, p. 93 (Pelew); Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, p. 49 (Palau, Mackenzie, Matetotas); Oustalet (part), Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, (3), 7, 1895, p. 171 (Pelew).

Halcyon chloris Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, pp. 89, 93 (Pelew); Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 4, 10 (Palau); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 14 (Pelew); Mayr, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 469, 1931, p. 3 (Pelew).

Dacelo albicilla Giebel (part), Thes. Ornith., 2, 1875, p. 1 (Pelew).

Halcyon sanctus Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, p. 50 (Palau); Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 17, 1892, p. 267 (Pelew).

Dacelo albicilla Giebel (part), Thes. Ornith., 2, 1875, p. 1 (Pelew).

Sauropatis chloris Salvadori, Ornith. Papuasia, 1, 1880, p. 470 (Pelew).

Halcyon chloris teraokai Uchida, Annot. Zool. Japon., 9, 1918, p. 482 (Palau); Kuroda, Ibis, 1927, p. 707 (Pelew); Takatsukasa and Yamashina, Dobutsu. Zasshi, 43, 1931, p. 484 (Pelew); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 180 (Palau); Bequaert, Mushi, 2, 1939, p. 82 (Palau); idem, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 16, 1941, p. 290 (Palau); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 201 (Babelthuap, Koror, Angaur); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 293 (Palau); Peters, Check-list Birds World, 5, 1945, p. 209 (Babelthuap, Koror, Angaur); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 64 (Peleliu, Garakayo).

Sauropatis chloris teraokai Oberholser, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 55, 1919, p. 357 (Pelew); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 59 (Angaur); Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 381 (Palau).

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

Characters.--Adult male: Dorsal surface bluish, head slightly darker, back and scapulars more greenish, rump lighter blue; outer webs of feathers of wing and of tail dark blue, entire first primary blue, inner webs of other primaries black; collar and underparts white; ariculars black with bluish wash, the black extending around neck above white band; spot on upper lores and narrow line above eye white; orbital ring and lower part of lores black; under wing-coverts white; under tail black; feet black; bill black, mandible with whitish base; iris dark brown.

Adult female: Resembles adult male, but crown and back more green and less blue; auriculars with greenish-blue wash.

Immature: Resembles adult, but feathers of forehead edged with buff; spot on lores and underparts buffy margined with dusky.

H. c. teraokai resembles closely H. c. chloris (Boddaert), but more greenish and less bluish, especially on tail.

Measurements.--Measurements are listed in table 33. Adult males and females have similar measurements and are treated together.

TABLE 33. MEASUREMENTS OF Halcyon chloris IN MICRONESIA

==================+=====+===========+=========+=========+========= | | | | Exposed | SUBSPECIES | No. | Wing | Tail | culmen | Tarsus ------------------+-----+-----------+---------+---------+--------- H. c. teraokai | 17 | 113 | 76 | 45 | 14 | | (110-116) | (72-81) | (41-52) | (13-16) | | | | | H. c. orii | 9 | 111 | 80 | 44 | 16 | | (109-116) | (78-83) | (42-45) | (15-16) | | | | | H. c. albicilla | 17 | 116 | 81 | 46 | 16 | | (109-119) | (78-84) | (42-49) | (14-17) | | | | | H. c. owstoni | 3 | 115 | 81 | 44 | 17 | | (114-116) | (80-82) | (42-45) | (16-17) ------------------+-----+-----------+---------+---------+-----------

Specimens examined.--Total number, 53 (25 males, 28 females), as follows: Palau Islands, USNM--Garakayo, 3 (Sept. 20)--Peleliu, 14 (Aug. 27, 29, 30, 31, Sept. 1, 5, 6, Nov. 7); AMNH--exact locality not given, 36 (Oct., Nov., Dec.).

Food habits.--Unlike H. cinnamomina, H. chloris obtains much of its food by fishing in inland waters or in tidal flats and lagoons. It does, however, obtain terrestrial foods also. Stomachs of birds taken by the NAMRU2 party at Palau contained insects, fish, crab, and shrimp. One stomach contained 3 cc. of fragments of crab, another 2 cc. of shrimp and other crustacea, and another 2 cc. of grasshoppers. Marshall (1949:210) records the house mouse as a food of this bird.

Parasites.--Uchida (1918:483) records the bird louse (Mallophaga), Docophorus alatoclypeatus, from this bird at Palau. Bequaert (1939:82 and 1941:290) lists the fly (Hippoboscidae), Ornithoica pusilla, from H. c. teraokai.