Part 97

Rhipidura kubaryi Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1875 (1876), p. 644. (Type locality, Ponapé.)

Rhipidura kubaryi Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 12. 1876, pp. 17, 29, pl. 2, fig. 2 (Ponapé); idem, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1877 (1878), p. 779 (Ponapé); Nehrkorn, Journ. f. Ornith., 1879, p. 403 (Ponapé); Finsch, Journ. f. Ornith., 1880, p. 289 (Ponapé); idem, Ibis, 1881, pp. 110, 112, 115 (Ponapé); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, p. 281 (Ponapé); Tristram, Cat. Birds, 1889, p. 198 (Ponapé); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 20 (Ponapé); Büttikofer, Notes Leyden Mus., 15, 1893, p. 76 (Ponapé); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, pp. 112, 113 (Ponapé); Dubois, Syn. Avium, 1, 1902, p. 277 (Ponapé); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, pp. 54, 64 (Ponapé); Wetmore, in Townsend and Wetmore, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 63, 1919, p. 204 (Ponapé); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 65 (Ponapé); Yamashina, Tori, 7, 1932, p. 403 (Ponapé); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 176 (Ponapé); Mayr, Proc. 6th Pacific Sci. Congr., 4, 1941, p. 204 (Ponapé); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 196 (Ponapé).

Rhipidura kubarii Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 4, 1879, p. 314 (Ponapé); Bolau, Mitteil. Naturhist. Mus. Hamburg, 1898, p. 55 (Ponapé).

Rhipdura rufifrons kubaryi Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 295 (Ponapé); Mayr and Moynihan, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 1321, 1946, pp. 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16 (Ponapé).

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

Characters.--Adult: Upper parts smoky olivaceous-brown, less smoky on rump and upper tail-coverts; anterior forehead and supraloral region narrowly edged with white; lores and orbital ring black; auriculars brown; feathers of chin and malar region tipped with white; rest of chin and throat black, lower feathers of throat edged with white; abdomen dark olivaceous-brown with whitish mid-portion anteriorily; sides and under tail-coverts ashy, the latter broadly tipped with white; wings and tail dark, tail tipped with white and outer rectrices more broadly so; axillaries and under wing-coverts gray, broadly tipped with white; bill and feet black, mandible basally whitish; iris dark brown.

R. r. kubaryi resembles R. r. uraniae, but larger; lacking rufous coloring; smaller and shorter, white malar stripe; white on chin reduced.

Measurements.--Measurements are listed in table 38.

Specimens examined.--Total number, 40 (24 males, 15 females, 1 unsexed), as follows: Caroline Islands, USNM--Ponapé, 1 (Feb. 12); AMNH--Ponapé, 39 (Nov., Dec.).

Nesting.--Yamashina (1932a:403) records nests containing one or two eggs taken at Ponapé in 1931 on the following dates: July 11, August 2, 14, 19, 22, 30. Coultas (field notes) obtained reports that the eggs are two in number and laid in a cup-shaped nest of grass and fern, which is placed near the ground.

Molt.--Many of the specimens examined that were taken in November and December are in fresh or slightly worn plumage. Only a few are molting. Apparently molt occurs earlier, perhaps beginning in August and continuing until October or November.

Remarks.--Coultas obtained a large series of these birds at Ponapé in 1931. He writes (field notes) that the fantail is a common bird and is found in forest and brush lands. This bird has a nervous behavior similar to that of other fantails and is constantly "wagging its long tail." Coultas describes it as an aggressive bird, chasing honey-eaters and white-eyes.

=Rhipidura lepida= Hartlaub and Finsch

Palau Fantail

Rhipidura lepida Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1868, p. 6. (Type locality, Pelew Islands.)

Rhipidura lepida Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1868, pp. 117, 118 (Pelew Islands); Gray, Hand-list Birds, 1, 1869, p. 331 (Pelew); Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, pp. 89, 97 (Pelew); Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 4, 21, pl. 4, fig. 2-3 (Palau); Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 4, 1879, p. 322 (Pelew); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, p. 407 (Palau); Tristram, Cat. Birds, 1889, p. 198 (Pelew); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 21 (Pelew); Büttikofer, Notes Leyden Mus., 15, 1893, p. 81 (Pelew); Bolau, Mitteil. Naturhist. Mus. Hamburg, 1898, p. 55 (Palau); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, pp. 112, 113 (Palau); Dubois, Syn. Avium, 1, 1902, p. 278 (Pelew); Reichenow, Die Vögel, 2, 1914, p. 267 (Palau); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 54 (Pelew); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 66 (Pelew); Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum], 2, 1930, p. 484 (Pelew); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 176 (Palau); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 196 (Babelthuap, Koror, Peliliu); Mayr and Moynihan, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 1321, 1946, pp. 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 19 (Palau); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 68 (Peleliu).

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

Characters.--Adult: Upper parts near "cinnamon-rufous," slightly lighter on the upper wing-coverts, scapulars, edges of inner secondaries, and rump; lores blackish; orbital ring and auriculars dark brown; chin, upper throat, and malar region white; lower throat and upper breast black with ashy-gray sides; lower breast whitish; rest of underparts like back but slightly paler; wings dark; tail black with tips rufous, inner rectrices with rufous tips narrower than on tail; under wing-coverts and axillaries broadly edged with rufous; bill blackish, lower mandible whitish at base; feet brownish; iris dark brown. Female slightly smaller.

Immature: Resembles adult, but head and neck brown; throat coloring dingy; patch on breast blackish cinnamon. Younger individuals may be more tinged with rufous above and below.

Measurements.--Measurements are listed in table 39.

TABLE 39. MEASUREMENTS OF Rhipidura lepida

================+=========+=========+=============+============= Number and Sex | Wing | Tail | Culmen | Tarsus ----------------+---------+---------+-------------+------------- 7 adult males | 80 | 89 | 15.5 | 23.3 | (77-83) | (85-94) | (14.5-16.0) | (23.0-24.0) | | | | 7 adult females | 77 | 86 | 15.5 | 22.5 | (76-79) | (83-88) | (14.5-15.0) | (21.7-23.0) ----------------+---------+---------+-------------+-------------

Specimens examined.--Total number, 18 (9 males, 9 females), as follows: Palau Islands, USNM--Koror, 2 (Nov. 6, 18)--Babelthuap, 1 (Nov. 27)--Peleliu, 4 (Aug. 29, 30, 31); AMNH--exact locality not given, 11 (Nov., Dec.).

Molt.--Some of the birds taken in August are in molt. Specimens taken in November and December are mostly in fresh plumage. Apparently this bird molts in late summer and early fall.

Remarks.--In 1945 the NAMRU2 party found the Palau Fantail in small numbers at Peleliu, Garakayo and Ngabad. At Peleliu the birds were noted as singles or in pairs in brushy undergrowth in forested areas. The birds were observed also in the second growth vegetation in the battle areas. Coultas (field notes) found the bird to be rare and restricted to the true forest, when he visited the Palau Islands in 1931. The fantail is one of the most attractive birds found in the jungles of the Palau Islands. Its bright rufous coloring is conspicuously displayed by the rapid movements of the wings and tail as the bird moves and feeds in the undergrowth. The population is apparently not large, and the individual or pair of birds probably ranges in a relatively large home territory.

Evolutionary History of Rhipidura in Micronesia.--The evolutionary history of Rhipidura in Micronesia has been studied considerably more than that of some of the other genera in the area. Oustalet (1896:70) notes a close relation between Rhipidura of the Marianas and R. rufifrons of Australia. Mayr (1941b:202, 203) regards the genus Rhipidura as typical of the Polynesian area and remarks that speciation within this genus has proceeded at a relatively rapid rate. Mayr and Moynihan (1946) have devoted a 21-page paper to a thorough discussion of the R. rufifrons group, based on the extensive collections at the American Museum of Natural History. They remark that no other genera are closely related to Rhipidura and that evolution has proceeded further in R. rufifrons than in any other species of the genus. These authors regard the Papuan area, probably New Guinea, as the original home of this group. From their study they point out that many of the subspecies of R. rufifrons of the Papuan area, especially those of the Louisiades and the Solomons, appear to be the least specialized of the species, and that this lack of specialization in these subspecies indicates that the ancestral stock of the species R. rufifrons acquired its specificity somewhere in that area. With regard to the kinds of Rhipidura in Micronesia, Mayr and Moynihan (1946:fig. 2) have logically found three separate colonizations within the area: one represented today by R. lepida at Palau; one of subspecies of R. rufifrons at Yap and in the Marianas; and one by R. r. kubaryi at Ponapé.

R. lepida, according to Mayr and Moynihan (1946), is a result of an early colonization by Rhipidura. It is related to R. dedemi, R. superflua, and R. teijsmanni, which are mostly monotypic or have only two or three subspecies within the species. These three species are found in the region including Celebes and the Moluccas. R. lepida apparently invaded the Palau Islands from Celebes or an adjacent area and, among named species, most closely resembles R. teijsmanni. Both of these species have a white chin and throat, black breast patch, and rufous abdomen. R. lepida has become differentiated chiefly by the presence of a rufous head and back, a more distinct breast band, and proportionately different amounts of rufous and black coloration of the tail feathers.

Mayr and Moynihan (1946:6) give as the chief characters of R. rufifrons the following: "a rufous forehead, a grayish brown head and upper back, a well-defined rufous rump, a white chin and throat, a black breast band with scaling at its lower edge, and a dark brown tail with a distinct rufous base and a white tip." The Micronesian subspecies of R. rufifrons at Yap and in the Marianas display these characters. Of the four subspecies found in the area including Yap and the Marianas, R. r. versicolor, R. r. saipanensis, R. r. mariae and R. r. uraniae, the two first named most closely approach the ancestral stock, which may have been R. r. commoda Hartert of the northern Solomons or some near relative in Melanesia. The amount of white on the chin and throat and on the malar stripe, in R. r. versicolor and R. r. saipanensis is probably nearer that which obtained in the ancestor. At Rota, R. r. mariae, exhibits less white on the throat and a thinner, white malar stripe, while at Guam, R. r. uraniae possesses only a small amount of white on the chin and only a very thin line of white in the malar region. This variation in coloration suggests that the birds may have originally become established at Yap, Saipan and Tinian and later, birds from Saipan and Tinian spread to Rota and lastly to Guam.