_Scolopax incana_ Gmelin, Syst. Nat., 1, pt. 2, 1789, p. 658. (Type
locality, Eimeo = Moorea, Society Islands and Palmerton Islands.)
_Totanus oceanicus_ Lesson, Mamm. et Ois., 2, 1847, p. 244
(Kusaie); Hartlaub, Archiv f. Naturgesch., 1852, p. 135
(Carolinen); _idem_, Journ. f. Ornith., 1854, pp. 167, 168
(Carolinen, Mariannen).
_Tryanga glareola_ Kittlitz, Denkw. Reise russ. Amer. Micron. und
Kamchat., 1, 1858, p. 365, 2, pp. 55, 86 (Ualan).
_Totanus incanus_ Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, 5, no. 27, 1864, p. 74
(Micronésie); Salvadori (part), Ornith. Papuasia, 3, 1882, p. 322
(Ualan, Puynipet, Marshalls, Mariannis); Wiglesworth (part),
Abhandl. und. Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p.
65 (Mulgrave, Taluit, Ualan, Ponapé, Ruk, Luganor, Uap, Marianne,
Pelew); Oustalet (part), Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, (3),
8, 1896, p. 41 (Saypan, Guam, Jaluit, Carolines, Palaos); Hartert,
Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 64 (Guam); _idem_, Novit. Zool. 7, 1900,
p. 8 (Ruk); Schnee, Zool. Jahrbücher, 20, 1904, p. 389
(Marschall-Inseln).
_Actitis incanus_ Finsch and Hartlaub (part), Fauna
Centralpolynesions, 1867, p. 187 (Mariannen, Ualan, Puynipet);
Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872,
pp. 89, 106 (Uap, Ualan); Gräffe, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 2, 1873,
p. 123 (Yap); Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 5, 36
(Palau); _idem_, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 12, 1876, pp. 18, 38
(Ponapé); _idem_, Journ. f. Ornith., 1880, pp. 294, 306 (Ponapé,
Kuschai, Marshalls); _idem_, Ibis, 1881, pp. 105, 109, 115 (Kushai,
Ponapé); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881,
p. 299 (Mortlock); Finsch, Mitth. Ornith. Ver. Wien, 1884, p. 55
(Jaluit, Arno, Kuschai).
_Actitis incana_ Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1877 (1878), p.
781 (Ponapé); _idem_, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880, p. 576 (Ruk);
_idem_, Ibis, 1880, pp. 219, 220, 330, 332 Milli or Mulgrave,
Taluit).
_Heteractitis incanus_ Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 24, 1906,
p. 455 (Oceania); Safford, The Plant World, 7, 1904, p. 268
(Guam); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 62 (Yap, Ruk,
Ponapé, Kusaie); Wetmore, in Townsend and Wetmore, Bull. Mus.
Comp. Zoöl., 63, 1919, p. 179 (Kusaie); Mathews, Syst. Avium
Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 70 (westcentral Pacific).
_Heteroscelus incanus_ Ridgway, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 50, pt. 8,
1919, p. 367 (Carolines, Marianas); Peters, Check-list Birds
World, 2, 1934, p. 270 (Micronesia); Bryan, Guam Rec., vol. 13,
no. 2, 1936, p. 24 (Guam): Watson, The Raven, 17, 1946, p. 42
(Guam); Wharton and Hardcastle (part), Journ. Parasitology, 32,
1946, pp. 296, 316, 318 (Guam, Peleliu); Downs, Trans. Kansas
Acad. Sci., 49, 1946, p. 93 (Tinian); Strophlet, Auk, 1946, p. 537
(Guam); Wharton, Ecol. Monogr., 16, 1946, pp. 174, 175 (Guam);
Borror, Auk, 1947, p. 417 (Agrihan).
_Tringa incana incana_ Hartert, Vögel pal. Fauna, 13-14, 1921, p.
1623 (Guam); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 191
(Marianas, Carolines, Marshalls, Palaus); Hand-list Japanese
Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 214 (Saipan, Guam, Koror, Angaur, Yap,
Faraulep, Lamatrek, Truk, Ponapé, Kusaie, Jaluit, Mille, Arhno,
Majuro, Maloelab, Wotze, Likieb, Ailuk).
_Heteroscelus incanus incanus_ Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds
Micronesia, 1922, p. 46 (Kusaie, Ruk, Ponapé, Yap, Marianas,
Mulgrave, Taluit, Pelew); Stickney, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 1248,
1943, p. 7 (Guam, Palau, Ponapé, Ruk, Kusaie); Mayr, Birds
Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 42 (Palau, Marianas); Baker, Smithson.
Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 53 (Guam, Rota, Ulithi).
_Geographic range._--Breeds in Alaska south to Prince William
Sound. Winters in North and South America and west in Oceania to
Melanesia. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands--Guam, Rota, Saipan,
Agrihan; Palau Islands--Angaur, Koror; Caroline Islands--Yap,
Ulithi, Truk, Faraulep, Lamatrek, Ponapé, Kusaie; Marshall
Islands--Jaluit, Mille, Arhno, Majuro, Maloelab, Wotze, Likieb,
Ailuk, Bikini.
_Specimens examined._--Total number, 47 (23 males, 20 females, 4
unsexed) as follows: Mariana Islands, USNM--Guam, 13 (May 21-29,
Sept. 19-27, Oct. 10, 23),--Rota, 2 (Oct. 23, 25); AMNH--Guam, 4
(April 23, Aug. 16); Palau Islands, AMNH--exact locality not given,
1 (no date); Caroline Islands, USNM--Ulithi, 3 (Aug. 20, 22);
AMNH--Truk, 1 (June 25),--Ponapé, 1 (Dec. 15),--Kusaie, 19 (Feb.,
Mar., April 1-10); Marshall Islands, USNM--Bikini, 3 (Feb. 26, 28,
April 28).
_Weights._--In 1948 (1948:53) I listed weights of two males from
Guam as 175 (May) and 109 (September); weights of two females from
Guam were 175 and 192 (both in May). These data were obtained by
the NAMRU2 field party.
_Parasites._--Wharton and Hardcastle (1946:296, 316, 318) list the
following chiggers (Acarina) from tattlers taken by NAMRU2
collectors at Guam and Peleliu: _Neoschöngastia bougainvillensis_,
_N. ewingi_, _N. carveri_, and _N. namrui_. Wharton (1946:174,
175) records the chiggers, _Acariscus pluvius_ and _A. anous_,
from tattlers from Guam. It is not certain from which species of
_Heteroscelus_ these chiggers were obtained.
_Remarks._--Records indicate that the American Wandering Tattler is a
regular visitor to eastern Micronesia, and that it only occasionally
reaches the Palau Islands in western Micronesia.
The NAMRU2 field parties found _H. brevipes_ as singles or in small
groups of five or less. They remained apart from other species and
appeared to prefer rocky beaches and coral-reef rocks to the sandy
beaches. At Guam in 1945, the latest spring migrants were taken on May
29. These birds were in nuptial plumage. Birds taken at Bikini by
Morrison on February 26 and April 28, 1946, were in worn, winter
plumage. At Guam, the NAMRU2 observers obtained the first fall migrants
on September 19. These observations in 1945, showed that _H. incanus_
arrived at Guam on its southbound flight fully one month after the first
individuals of _H. brevipes_ began to appear (mid-July). This difference
may partly result from the fact that the distance to the Asiatic
breeding grounds of _H. brevipes_ is not so great as that to the
American breeding grounds of _H. incanus_.
Whether the two tattlers, _H. brevipes_ and _H. incanus_, are distinct
species (allopatric species insofar as breeding ranges are concerned),
or whether they are mere subspecies (geographic races) is open to
question. I failed to find evidences of intergradation in the few
specimens which I examined critically; however, the final answer to the
problem might be obtained by collecting series of birds from breeding
grounds where ranges closely approach each other or overlap (if they
do). Stickney (1943:6, 7) lists the distinctive differences in these two
birds, particularly the character of the nasal groove, and does not
mention having found any evidence of intergradation. Wetmore (in
Townsend and Wetmore, 1919:180) gives evidence that they belong to two
separate species.
=Arenaria interpres interpres= (Linnaeus)