_Monarcha godeffroyi_ Hartlaub, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1867
(1868), p. 829, pl. 38. (Type locality, Yap.)
_Monarcha godeffroyi_ Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, p.
50 (Yap); Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 4, 1879, p. 432 (Yap);
Nehrkorn, Journ. f. Ornith., 1879, p. 403 (Yap); Bolau, Mitteil.
Naturhist. Mus. Hamburg, 1898, p. 56 (Yap); Dubois, Syn. Avium, 1,
1902, p. 289 (Yap); Reichenow, Die Vögel, 2, 1914, p. 261 (Yap);
Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 295 (Yap).
_Monarcha godeffroyi_ Gray, Hand-list Birds, 1, 1869, p. 321
(Yap); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 175 (Yap);
Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 194 (Yap).
_Monarches godeffroyi_ Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc.
London, 1872, pp. 89, 97 (Yap); Gräffe, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 2,
1873, p. 123 (Yap); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus.
Godeffroy, 1881, p. 391 (Yap); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds
Micronesia, 1922, p. 63 (Yap).
_Pomarea godeffroyi_ Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus.
Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 19 (Yap); Matschie, Journ. f.
Ornith., 1901, p. 112 (Yap).
_Monarcharses geoffroyii_ Mathews, Bull. British Ornith. Club, 45,
1925, p. 94 (new generic name); _idem_, Syst. Avium
Australasianarum, 2, 1930, p. 514 (Yap).
_Monarcharses godeffroyi_ Takatsukasa and Yamashina, Dobutsu.
Zasshi, 43, 1931, p. 486 (Yap?).
_Geographic range._--Micronesia: Caroline Islands--Yap.
_Characters._--Adult male: according to Sharpe (1879:432).
"General colour above white, from the hind neck to the rump and
including scapulars; wings black, the quills browner; upper
tail-coverts and tail black; head all around black, including the
lower throat; sides of neck and rest of under surface, from the
foreneck downwards, pure white; thighs and under tail-coverts
black; under wing-coverts black, quills ashy blackish below; white
along the inner edge of the primaries; 'bill entirely blue; feet
whitish blue; iris black' (Kubary M. S.)."
Adult female: "Entirely black, excepting the hind neck and upper
mantle, sides of neck, lower throat, and fore neck, which are pure
white" (Sharpe, 1879:432).
Immature: "Above brown, the head and hind neck ashy grey, the
scapulars rufescent at the tips, the rump rufous, becoming paler
and more fulvous on the upper tail-coverts; wing-coverts dusky
brown, broadly edged externally with rufous-buff, becoming fulvous
on the median and greater coverts; quills dark brown, externally
edged with rufous, the primaries narrowly, the secondaries more
broadly, the innermost of the latter edged and tipped with buff;
tail-feathers ashy brown, narrowly edged with ochraceous brown and
tipped with white, more broadly on the outer feathers; lores and a
broad eyebrow rufous-buff; ear-coverts rather deeper rufous,
shading on to the sides of the throat; under surface of body light
cinnamon-rufous inclining to rufous on the throat and under
tail-coverts; under wing-coverts light cinnamon, like the breast;
quills light brown below, whitish along the inner web; 'bill
horn-colour, the point brown, under mandible paler, feet dirty
white, iris black' (Kubary M. S.)." (Sharpe, 1879:433).
_Remarks._--No specimens of this species have been seen by me. Most
taxonomists have regarded this bird as a member of the genus _Monarcha_,
although Mathews did propose the name _Monarcharses_ for this bird. On
the basis of descriptions and pictures (especially plate 38 in Hartlaub,
1868:828) the bird appears to be related to the monarch flycatchers of
the Melanesian area. It may be closest to _Monarcha menckei_ from the
Bismarcks, _M. manadensis_ of the New Guinea region, _M. barbatus_ from
the Solomons or to _M. leucurus_ from Buru. The drab color of the
immatures and the black and white color of the adults are
characteristics of the Yap Monarch which are shared with some of the
other species of _Monarcha_. The connection between _M. godeffroyi_ and
_Metabolus rugensis_ of Truk is not known, but they evidently represent
separate colonizations. _M. takatsukasae_ of Tinian appears to be an
offshoot of _M. godeffroyi_ of Yap, in which the black and white
plumage has been suppressed (or never developed). As indicated by the
published descriptions, the immature of _M. godeffroyi_ shows a close
resemblance to the adult of _M. takatsukasae_. The latter also shows
relationships to immature specimens of _M. leucotis_ and to _M. guttula_
of Melanesia.
The relationship of the two species of _Monarcha_ in Micronesia to the
Hawaiian Flycatcher, _Chasiempsis sandwichensis_ is not known. It is
apparent that this Hawaiian form was derived from some ancestor from
Melanesia, which arrived in the Hawaiian Islands by way of either
Polynesia or Micronesia. Mayr (1943:45) has already pointed out that
_Chasiempsis_ is "related to the _Monarcha_ group (_Pomarea_,
_Mayrornis_, etc.)."
=Monarcha takatsukasae= (Yamashina)