===============+=====+===========+===========+=========+=========
| | | | Culmen |
Sex | No. | Wing | Tail | from | Tarsus
| | | | cere |
---------------+-----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------
Adult males | 18 | 147 | 105 | 20 | 16
| | (143-153) | (100-110) | (19-20) | (15-17)
| | | | |
Adult females | 13 | 142 | 101 | 19 | 16
| | (141-146) | (98-104) | (18-19) | (15-17)
---------------+-----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------
_Specimens examined._--Total number, 31 (18 males, 13 females), as
follows: Caroline Islands, USNM--Ponapé, 2 (Feb. 12); AMNH--Ponapé,
29 (Nov.).
_Nesting._--According to Coultas (field notes) the nest is placed
in the top of a coconut tree or in a hollow of a large forest tree.
He says that one egg is laid, but does not record dates of nesting.
Four of the birds taken by Coultas at Ponapé in November had
swollen gonads.
_Molt._--Specimens taken in November by Coultas were either in
fresh plumage or were completing the molt when obtained.
_Parasites._--Uchida (1918:484, 493) found the bird lice
(Mallophaga), _Psittaconirmus harrisoni_ and _Eomenopon
denticulatus_, on the Ponapé Lory.
_Remarks._--There is little written information concerning the habits of
the Ponapé lory. Mayr (1945a:291) describes the bird as being "very
noisy" and with "habits apparently similar to _T. haematodus_." Coultas
made a number of observations on this species; some of these unpublished
notes are essentially as follows: _Trichoglossus_ is common on Ponapé.
It is found everywhere on the island, preferring the coconut palms; it
is noisy and quarrelsome. The parrot travels usually in small groups of
two to six or eight birds, keeping up a continuous chatter all of the
time. This chatter quiets down into a very pleasant-sounding
crooning-tone after sunset. _Trichoglossus_ is a continual nuisance to
the hunter, inquisitive and easily attracted by the slightest noise, to
which the bird responds with a frantic yapping that frightens everything
within a radius of a mile. One sometimes finds a bird alone working
quietly about among the low trees of the high mountain ridges. The
natives' name for the bird, "se ridt," means "always hide out in rain."
The bird stays under a big leaf and keeps dry during the rain. This lory
is intelligent, easily tamed, and sometimes learns to repeat a few
words.
_Evolutionary history of Trichoglossus rubiginosus._--The Ponapé Lory is
the only native parrot in Micronesia. It is an aberrant species and
seemingly is of long residence on the island, as indicated by its
differences from related forms to the southward and southwestward. The
bird shows some relationships to _T. ornatus_ (Linnaeus) of Celebes, but
the plumage of _T. rubiginosus_ lacks the brilliant red, green, and
yellow of this bird. The plumage of the Ponapé Lory is also softer in
texture; this is a character exhibited also by other Micronesian birds,
for example, _Cleptornus_ and _Colluricincla_. _T. rubiginosus_ and _T.
ornatus_ correspond, however, in having the feathers of the breast edged
with blackish. _T. rubiginosus_ resembles also _T. flavovirides_ of
Celebes and Sula in that the edges of the feathers of the breast are
dark, no markings are present on the inner web of the wing, and feathers
of the upper back are edged with dark coloring. _T. rubiginosus_ may
have been derived from either of these two species; however, it shows a
close relationship also to the _T. haematodus_ group from the Papuan
region. In any case, the Ponapé Lory, isolated in Micronesia, has not
the multicolored plumage of its relatives and has, instead, a rather
uniformly colored plumage. The presence of this parrot at only a single
island in Micronesia is difficult to explain; perhaps at one time the
bird was more widely distributed in Micronesia, or it may be that the
population represents a single successful invasion to Ponapé. Like
_Aplonis pelzelni_, another endemic species at Ponapé, this lory may
have reached the island as a straggler, perhaps being carried north by
the prevailing winds in the post-nesting season.
=Cuculus canorus telephonus= Heine