================+=========+=========+=============+=============
NUMBER AND SEX | Wing | Tail | Full culmen | Tarsus
----------------+---------+---------+-------------+-------------
6 males | 70 | 68 | 18.0 | 22.0
| (67-72) | (65-70) | (17.5-19.0) | (21.0-23.0)
| | | |
10 females | 67 | 67 | 17.2 | 22.5
| (65-68) | (64-69) | (17.0-19.0) | (21.7-23.0)
----------------+---------+---------+-------------+-------------
_Specimens examined._--Total number, 20 (10 males, 10 females), as
follows: Mariana Islands, USNM--Tinian, 10 (Oct.); AMNH--Tinian, 9
(Sept.); KMNH--Tinian, 1 (Sept.).
_Nesting._--Yamashina (1932a:400, 401) records two nests of the
Tinian Monarch. He writes of one nest containing two eggs taken at
Churo, Tinian, on January 29, 1932, that was "hung on a fork of an
upward pointing branch of a road side tree commonly called 'Oba'
1.5 m. high from the ground in a forest.... The ground color of the
egg shells is white. The spots are pale reddish-brown and
distributed all round the surface like small dots, being
concentrated especially round the larger end." Another nest
containing three eggs was found on January 29, 1932. Yamashina
writes that the eggs measure 20.5 x 15, 21 x 15, and 18 x 15 mm. In
describing these nests Yamashina notes, "The shape of the two nests
mentioned above is like a deep cup. The outer layer of them is made
chiefly of dead leaves, fibers, cotton, wools and moss, and the
inner layer of fine stems and fibers only."
Downs (1946:101) writes that a nest found near Lake Hagoi at
Tinian on August 31, 1945, "was about three feet from the ground
carefully woven into the framework of a triangular crotch.... It
was composed exteriorly of small leaves, scattered white feathers,
and heavy grass; interiorly of grasses only." In the nest he found
a young bird which "was black-skinned, with ugly white quills and
a few short dark feathers on its tail and wings. The back feathers
were rusty brown as were the tufted head feathers." Marshall
(1949:219) assumes that this bird breeds all year.
_Molt._--Birds taken by Coultas in September are in fresh plumage.
_Remarks._--The Tinian Monarch is known only from Tinian, where it was
described in 1931 by Yamashina. Downs (1946:100-103) presents a detailed
account of this bird as he saw it in 1945. He found it living in brushy
woodlands where other birds, including _Rhipidura rufifrons_, were
observed. From his description, the actions and food-catching behaviors
of this bird must be much like those of _Rhipidura_. Gleise (1945:220)
estimated the population of these birds to be 40 to 50 in 1945.
=Myiagra oceanica erythrops= Hartlaub and Finsch