_Megapodius La Pérouse_ Gaimard, Bull. Gén. Univ. Annon. Nouv.
Sci., 2, 1823, 451. (Type locality, Tinian, Archipel des
Mariannes.)
_Megapodius La Pérouse_ Quoy and Gaimard, Voy. "Uranie," Zool.,
1824, pp. 127, 693, Atlas, pl. 33 (Tinian); _idem_, Ann. Sci. Nat.
Paris, 6, 1825, p. 149 (Tinian).
_Megapodius La Pérousii_ Quoy and Gaimard, Voy. "Uranie," Zool.,
1824, p. 127, pl. 33 (Tinian); Wagler, Isis, 1829, p. 735 (Tinian,
Guam, Rota); Gray, Cat. Birds Trop. Is. Pacific Ocean, 1859, p. 46
(Tinian); Oustalet, Ann. Sci. Nat., (6), art. 2, 1881, pp. 63,
138, 140, 143, 171, 175, 176, 177 (Tinian); _idem_, Le Nat., 1889,
p. 261 (Mariannes); _idem_, Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool., 11, 1891, p.
196 (Tinian, Seypan, Pagon).
_Megapodius La Peyrouse_ Lesson, Man. d'Ornith., 2, 1828, p. 221
(Tinian); _idem_, Compl. de Buffon, 2d ed., 2, Ois., 1838, p. 255
and accompanying plate (Tinian).
_Megapodius laperousii_ Lesson, Traité d'Ornith., 1831, p. 478
(Mariannes); Gray, Hand-list Birds, 2, 1870, p. 256 (Marian);
Ogilvie-Grant, Hand-book Game-birds, 2, 1897, p. 183 (Marianne);
Dubois, Syn. Avium, 2, 1904, p. 787 (Mariannes); Lister, Proc.
Zool. Soc. London, 1911, p. 757 (Marianne).
_Megapodius Lapeyrousii_ Hartlaub, Journ. f. Ornith., 1854, p. 167
(Mariannen).
_Megapodius La Peyrousii_ Reichenbach, Tauben, 1861, p. 5
(Marianen).
_Megapodius la-perousi_ Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1864, p. 43
(Guam, Botta, Tinian).
_Megapodius laperousi Giebel_, Thes. Ornith., 2, 1875, p. 547
(Marianae); Seale, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 1, 1901, p.
39 (Marianas); Safford; Osprey, 1902, p. 68 (Tinian); _idem_, The
Plant World, 7, 1904, p. 265 (Tinian); _idem_, Contr. U. S. Nat.
Herb., 9, 1905, p. 78 (Rota, Saipan, Pagan, Agrigan); Schnee,
Zeitschr, f. Naturwisch., 82, 1912, p. 467 (Marianen); Prowazek,
Die deutschen Marianen, 1913, pp. 47, 101 (Marianen); Linsley,
Guam, Rec., vol. 12, no. 8, 1935, p. 249 (Rota, Saipan, Pagan,
Agrigan).
_Megapodius perousei_ Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, p.
30 (Marianen); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden,
no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 58 (Guam, Botta, Tinian, Pagon).
_Megapodius laperousii_ Ogilvie-Grant (part), Cat. Birds British
Mus., 22, 1893, p. 460 (Marianne).
_Megapodius la perousei_ Oustalet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat.
Paris, (3), 8, 1896, p. 26 (Saypan, Pagan, Rota, Agrigan, Tinian).
_Megapodius laperouse_ Hartert, Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 61
(Saipan, Tinian, Rota, Guam).
_Megapodius laperousei_ Finsch, Sammlung wissensch. Vorträge, 14
ser., 1900, p. 660 (Marianen); Prowazek, Die deutschen Marianen,
1913, p. 87 (Marianen).
_Megapodius lapeyrouse_ Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 113
(Guam, Saipan).
_M[egapodius] lapeyrousei_ Reichenow (part), Die Vögel, 1, 1913,
p. 273 (Mariannen).
_Megapodius laperousei laperousei_ Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds
Micronesia, 1922, p. 40 (Guam, Saipan, Rota, Tinian, Pagan,
Agrigan).
_Megapodius lapérouse lapérouse_ Mathews, Syst. Avium
Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 16 (Marianas); Takatsukasa, Birds
Nippon, vol. 1, pt. 1, 1932, p. 6, pl. 4, 5 (Marianne); Yamashina,
Tori, 7, 1932, p. 411 (Pagan Agrigan); Hand-list Japanese Birds,
rev., 1932, p. 198 (Marianas); Peters, Check-list Birds World, 2,
1934, p. 7 (Marianne Islands); Yamashina, Tori, 10, 1940, p. 679
(Assongsong); Amadon, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 1175, 1942, p. 9
(Asuncion, Saipan, Guam); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p.
286 (Marianas).
_Megapodius laperousi laperousi_ Bryan, Guam Rec., vol. 13, no. 2,
1936, p. 15 (Guam).
_Megapodius la pérouse la pérouse_ Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d
ed., 1942, p. 223 (Assongsong, Agrigan, Pagan, Almagan, Saipan,
Tinian, Agiguan, Rota, Guam).
_Geographic range._--Micronesia: Mariana Islands--Asuncion,
Agrihan, Pagan, Almagan, Saipan, Tinian, Agiguan, Rota, Guam.
Probably extinct on Saipan, Tinian, Rota, Guam.
_Characters._--Adult: Resembles _M. l. senex_, but crown slightly
darker gray; back, wing-coverts and scapulars more heavily washed
with olivaceous-brown; mantle less slate; underparts paler and
more brownish, especially belly. (Note--The specimens examined
from the Marianas are old and rather worn in appearance.)
_Measurements._--Two males measure: wing 180?, 182?; tail 62, 63;
tarsus 55, 55; three females: wing 181?, 181?; tail 55, 59, 62;
tarsus 54, 54, 56. Takatsukasa (1932: 10) lists the following
measurements: males--wing, 155-169; tail, 54-62; culmen, 22.5-24;
tarsus, 51-54; females--wing, 158-170; tail, 56-65; culmen, 23-25;
tarsus, 50-55.
_Specimens examined._--Total number, 10 (3 males, 4 females, 3
unsexed), as follows: Mariana Islands, AMNH--Guam, 1 (June
6)--Saipan, 6 (1895)--Asuncion, 3 (1904).
_Nesting._--Concerning the nest of the Micronesian Megapode in the
Marianas, Takatsukasa (1932:10) writes: "The nest is a large mound
of sand mixed with grass and is made in the wooded land along the
seashore. The mound is over one hundred feet in circumference and a
few yards in height, and is built by the united efforts of the male
and female, by scratching sand and grass with their large feet. The
eggs are laid in this mound and they are hatched by the heat of the
sun and that produced by the fermentation of the grass, and they
are never hatched by the parent birds. The egg is of a pale brown,
but always stained by nesting materials."
Takatsukasa (1932:11) quotes Oustalet as follows: "Specimens
collected by Mr. Marche have proved that the breeding season of La
Pérouse's Megapode is rather long, like the other species of the
same family, it begins to breed in January or February and ends in
June. Accordingly, in this period the eggs just laid, the chicks,
the young and adult can be seen at one place, but Mr. Marche did
not obtain any egg." Hartert (1898:61) records a chick taken on
July 17. Yamashina (1932a: 411) records eggs taken in 1931 as
follows: two eggs from Pagan, February 17; three eggs from Pagan,
May 15; four eggs from Agrihan, June 24. The breeding season for
both of the incubator birds, _M. l. senex_ and _M. l. lapérouse_,
is apparently from about January to August.
_Remarks._--The Micronesian Megapode was first taken in the Marianas by
the expedition of the Uranie. Bérard, a member of the expedition,
obtained the bird at Tinian in December, 1820. Quoy and Gaimard
(1824:27), who studied the birds of this expedition, reported that
according to native tradition the species was in former times widely
distributed in the Marianas and domesticated by the ancient people of
the islands, but that in 1819 and 1820 the birds were not numerous on
Tinian and not found on Guam and Rota. Marche (in Oustalet, 1896:27)
obtained twenty-three birds at Saipan, one from Rota, two from Agrihan,
and five from Pagan in 1887, 1888, and 1889; it is apparent that Quoy
and Gaimard missed the bird at Rota. Marche was of the opinion that the
megapodes were never domesticated and that they would probably not last
much longer at Saipan and Rota owing to the incessant hunting for them
by the natives. As in the Palaus, the natives apparently prefer the eggs
to the adults. The latest collections of these birds in the Marianas
were made by the Japanese. Yamashina (1932:411) obtained eggs in 1931 at
Pagan and Agrihan, and again in 1940. He (1940:679) reported birds at
Assongsong (Asuncion). Takatsukasa (1932:12) says, "A collector, working
for Marquis Yamashina and myself, lately procured many specimens in
Saipan and Pagan." Linsley (1935:249, 250) in searching for the megapode
at Guam found little evidence of the birds. He interviewed people
between the ages of forty-five and eighty and only two or three
remembered seeing the bird. He said he saw one or two cross the road;
but I suspect that they might have been rails (_Rallus owstoni_).
Service personnel stationed at various islands in the Marianas during
the late war have not reported the birds. The NAMRU2 party found no
trace of the bird at Guam or Rota. Joe T. Marshall, Jr. (1949:203), did
not find the bird at Saipan, Tinian, or Guam in 1945. Its status on
Agiguan is unknown; isolated Japanese troops present on this small
island from the time of the American invasion (1944) until the armistice
(1945) may have used the birds for food and depleted the population
seriously. At present the birds apparently still occur on islands in the
northern Marianas. It seems that if these birds are to survive, they
must be given some protection.
_Evolutionary history._--The genus _Megapodius_ consists, according to
Peters (1934:1-7), of nine species which are distributed through the
islands from the Philippines and Borneo to Australia and Melanesia.
These have been redesignated under three specific names by Mayr (1938).
Outlying forms occur in the Nicobar Group to the west and in Tonga
(Niuafou Island) in the east and in the Palaus and Marianas to the
extreme northeast. Lister (1911:757) is of the opinion that the
megapodes may have reached these outlying islands by having been
transported by the natives, by whom the eggs were highly valued as food.
This idea is also maintained by Rutland (1896:29-30) and Christian
(1926:260). Possibility and not factual evidence support this
hypothesis. From their seeming ancestral stocks, _M. pritchardii_ Gray
of Niuafou Island and _M. lapérouse_ of Micronesia are remarkably
distinct which may indicate their early arrival at these islands and
subsequent change from their ancestral stocks.
Like _M. pritchardii_, the Micronesian species is smaller than its
relatives to the southwest and has short, rather rounded wings, although
its feet are heavily built whereas those of _M. pritchardii_ are lightly
constructed. In comparing these birds with the species of megapode found
in the Philippines, Celebes and Melanesia, it seems that both _M.
pritchardii_ and _M. Lapérouse_ are closely related to the widespread
species, _M. freycinet_, which may have been ancestral to both. The
differences between _M. prichardii_ and _M. lapérouse_ indicate that
they represent independent invasions. Nevertheless these megapodes may
have had a wider range in Oceania in former times; man may have
eliminated the birds from some islands by using their eggs. The eggs are
laid in conspicuous mounds which are easily found by man.
_M. lapérouse_ differs from _M. freycinet_ of New Guinea and other parts
of Melanesia and the Philippines; its small size, short wing and pearl
gray head are distinctive characters. It shows greatest resemblance to
the subspecies in Celebes (_M. f. gilberti_) in size and to the
subspecies in the Moluccas (_M. f. freycinet_) in coloring; possibly
_M._ _lapérouse_ represents stock from one of these regions. Apparently
the group as a whole evolved from a center of dispersal in the New
Guinea area. Mayr (1942b:167) regarded all the species of _Megapodius_
as belonging to one polytypic species, except _M. lapérouse_ and _M.
pritchardii_, which are allopatric species.
=Coturnix chinensis lineata= (Scopoli)