_Caloenas nicobarica_ var. _pelewensis_ Finsch, Journ. Mus.
Godeffroy, 8, 1875, p. 159 (in reprint p. 27). (Type locality,
Palau.)
_Caloenas nicobarica pelewensis_ Mathews, Syst. Avium
Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 77 (Pelew); Hand-list Japanese
Birds, rev., 1932, p. 188 (Palau); Peters, Check-list Birds World,
3, 1937, p. 139 (Palau); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942,
p. 210 (Babelthuap, Koror); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945,
p. 291 (Palau); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15,
1948, p. 62 (Garakayo).
_Caloenas nicobarica_ Salvadori, Ornith. Papuasia, 3, 1882, p. 211
(Pelew); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und. Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6,
1890-1891 (1891), p. 57 (Pelew).
_Caloenas pelewensis_ Salvadori, Cat. Birds British Mus., 21,
1893, p. 618 (Pelew); Bolau, Mitteil. Naturhist. Mus. Hamburg,
1898, p. 69 (Palau); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 113
(Palau); Reichenow, Die Vögel, 1, 1913, p. 328 (Palauinseln);
Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 52 (Pelew).
_Caloenas nicobaricus pelewensis_ Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds
Micronesia, 1922, p. 53 (Pelew).
_Geographic range._--Micronesia: Palau Islands-Babelthuap, Koror,
Garakayo.
_Characters._--Adult: A large heavy-bodied pigeon with head, neck,
and upper breast blackish; rest of plumage metallic bluish-green
with coppery sheen; wings glossy green; tail and under
tail-coverts white; feathers of hind-neck long and lanceolate;
bill heavy and slightly hooked with lump at base.
Resembles _C. n. nicobarica_ (Linnaeus), but slightly smaller and
with upper parts metallic bluish-green and underparts darker and
less green.
_Measurements._--One adult female measures: wing, 232; tail, 82;
culmen, 31; tarsus, 44; one immature female: wing, 236; tail, 89;
culmen, 32; tarsus, 45.
_Specimens examined._--Total number, three females from Palau
Islands, AMNH--exact locality not given (undated).
_Remarks._--_C. nicobarica_ is distributed from the Nicobar Islands east
through Malaysia to Melanesia as a single undifferentiated form. In the
northeasternmost part of its range, in the Palau Islands, it exhibits
geographic variation and is considered to be subspecifically distinct
from the rest of the population. _C. nicobarica_ appears to have no
close relatives. It may represent the last remnant of some ancient group
of pigeons.
The Nicobar Pigeon is rare. Coultas, who visited the islands in 1931,
did not obtain the bird. The only specimens available for study are
those in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History taken
by Kubary in the period between 1870 and 1880. The NAMRU2 party did not
obtain specimens but saw the bird on five occasions at the island of
Garakayo in the middle Palaus. The writer expected the bird to be
ground-living in habit, but the individuals, which I saw at Garakayo,
were either perched on scrubby vegetation on high and inaccessible
cliffs or were flying high overhead. In its flight overhead, the short,
white tail was a particularly conspicuous mark of identification. The
flight reminded me very much of that of the Black Vulture (_Córagyps
atrátus_) of North America. No birds were found at Peleliu or Angaur,
and the small population of this pigeon that remains is probably
restricted to uninhabited coral islets, as Mayr (1945a:291) has already
noted. Marshall (1949: 207) saw one bird on Peleliu and one on Koror in
November and December, 1945. This endemic subspecies is probably on the
road to extinction unless governmental protection can be established and
enforced.
=Trichoglossus rubiginosus= (Bonaparte)