===================+============+===============+============+===========
| | | Exposed |
SUBSPECIES | Number | Wing | culmen | Tarsus
-------------------+------------+---------------+------------+-----------
_P. p. ponapensis_ | 12 males | 137 (133-141) | 14 (13-15) | 25 (24-27)
| 11 females | 133 (126-137) | 14 (13-15) | 25 (24-26)
| | | |
_P. p. hernsheimi_ | 6 males | 134 (130-138) | 13 (12-14) | 25 (24-26)
| 5 females | 127 (125-130) | 13 (12-13) | 25 (24-25)
| | | |
_P. p. pelewensis_ | 10 males | 133 (131-134) | 15 (13-15) | 25 (23-26)
| 4 females | 133 (130-138) | 15 (14-15) | 24 (23-24)
-------------------+------------+---------------+------------+-----------
_Specimens examined._--Total number, 81 (52 males, 26 females, 3
unsexed), as follows: Caroline Islands, USNM--Truk, 4 (Feb. 16,
Dec. 24); AMNH--Truk, 24 (Jan., June, Oct.)--Ponapé, 53 (Nov.,
Dec).
_Nesting._--Yamashina (1932a:408) reports on eggs taken at Ponapé
on the following dates: July 10, 12, August 1, 12, 15, 21. Only one
egg was found to a nest. Hartert (1900:8) records nests containing
eggs in May and June at Truk. Coultas (field notes) describes the
nest as a flimsy affair. At Ponapé in November and December he
found nests on low branches (10 to 20 feet from the ground) each
containing a single egg. Nests were found also in the tops of tree
ferns. Females taken in these months had enlarged gonads.
_Parasites._--Bequaert (1939:81, 82, and 1941:266, 290) records
the two flies (Hippoboscidae), _Ornithoctona plicata_ and _O.
pusilla_, from the fruit dove at Ponapé.
_Remarks._--McElroy of the NAMRU2 party found the birds in mountainous
areas at Truk in December, 1945. At Ponapé in November and December,
1931, Coultas (field notes) comments that the bird is rapidly
disappearing owing to persistent hunting by the natives and, at that
time, by the Japanese. He found the birds to be strictly forest-living
and to frequent the larger fruit-bearing trees of the lowlands and the
mountain sides. Coultas writes that the Japanese hunters attracted the
doves by the use of calls. The natives catch the birds with a gum
mixture obtained from bread-fruit gum and coconut oil.
=Ptilinopus porphyraceus hernsheimi= (Finsch)