_Lamprothornis corvina_ Kittlitz, Kupfertaf. Naturgesch. Vögel, 2,
1833, p. 12, pl. 15, fig. 3. (Type locality, Ualan = Kusaie.)
_Lamprothornis corvina_, Kittlitz, Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. St.
Peterbourg, 2, 1835, p. 7, pl. 9 (Ualan); _idem_, Obser. Zool., in
Lutké, Voy. "Le Séniavine," 3, 1836, p. 285 (Ualan).
_Lamprotornis corvina_ Bonaparte, Consp. Avium, 1, 1850, p. 417
(Ualan); Hartlaub, Archiv. f. Naturgesch., 18, 1852, p. 133
(Ualan); Kittlitz, Denkw. Reise russ. Amer. Micron. und Kamchat.,
2, 1858, pp. 25, 43, 59, 103 (Ualan); Finsch, Ibis, 1881, p. 104
(Kuschai).
_Lamprocorax corvinus_ Hartlaub, Journ. f. Ornith., 1854, p. 168
(Carolinen = Kusaie); Sclater, Ibis, 1859, p. 327 (Caroline =
Kusaie); Dubois, Syn. Avium, 1, 1902, p. 543 (Kuschai).
_Calornis (Lamprocorax?) corvina_ Gray, Cat. Birds Trop. Is.
Pacific Ocean, 1859, p. 25 (Oualan).
_Sturnoides corvina_ Finsch and Hartlaub, Fauna
Centralpolynesiens, 1867, p. 108 (Ualan); Finsch, Journ. f.
Ornith., 1880, pp. 297, 302 (Kuschai).
_Calornis corvina_ Gray, Hand-list Birds, 2, 1870, p. 27 (Caroline
= Kusaie); Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, p.
100 (Ualan); Giebel, Thes. Ornith., 2, 1875, p. 427 (Caroline =
Kusaie); Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 13, 1890, p. 137
(Kuschai); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no.
6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 46 (Ualan or Kushai); Matschie, Journ. f.
Ornith., 1901, p. 112 (Ualan); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1,
1915, p. 64 (Kusaie).
_Sturnoides corvinus_ Finsch, Ibis, 1881, pp. 107, 108 (Kushai).
_Kittlitzia corvina_ Hartert, Kat. Vogelsamml. Senckenb., 1891, p.
75 (Ualan); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 72
(Kusaie); Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 2, 1930, p. 853
(Kusaie); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 169 (Kusaie);
Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 187 (Kusaie).
_Aplonis corvina_ Reichenow, Die Vögel, 2, 1914, p. 356 (Ualan);
Mayr, Proc. 6th Pacific Sci. Congr., 4, 1941, p. 213 (Kusaie).
_Aplonis corvinus_ Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 298
(Kusaie).
_Geographic range._--Micronesia: Caroline Islands--Kusaie, probably
extinct for many years.
_Characters._--According to Sharpe (1890:137), "Shining black;
each feather with a glossy margin, varying from steel-green to
purplish red; bill and feet black (Kittlitz)."
_Remarks._--Kittlitz obtained two specimens of a unique starling at
Kusaie when he visited the island in December and January, 1827-'28. He
named the birds as new and deposited the specimens in the museum in St.
Petersburg. The bird has not been found at Kusaie since that time.
Sharpe (1890:137-138, footnote) writes "This species I have never seen,
and Dr. Finsch did not meet with it during his visit to Kuschai. He
writes to me:--'It no doubt exists on Kuschai, just as it did when
Kittlitz visited the island. Nobody has reached the mountains in the
interior since Kittlitz's time; and it is strictly a mountain bird.'"
Coultas spent considerable time searching the higher areas of Kusaie for
the bird in 1931.
The Kusaie Mountain Starling apparently represents an early invasion of
Micronesia, independent of that of any other starling in the area and
perhaps the earliest of the three colonizations by starlings in
Micronesia. The drawing of the bird as pictured by Kittlitz (1833:pl.
14, fig. 3) shows the long bill to be one of its distinctive characters.
This suggests relationship to _A. atrifuscus_ of Samoa, as noted by Mayr
(1942a:6). _A. atrifuscus_ is larger than _A. opacus_ with a longer bill
and gloss on some of the feathering of the body; it looks a good deal
like the drawing of _A. corvinus_ by Kittlitz. _A. corvinus_ may also
have some relation to _A. magnus_ of Biak, although this species has a
longer tail and a shorter bill. _A. corvinus_ probably has undergone an
evolutionary development which parallels that of _A. atrifuscus_ and
possibly other species in the Polynesian and Melanesian areas. The
ancestral stock from which _A. corvinus_ was derived may have been close
to _A. grandis_, which is found in the Solomon area. _A. grandis_ is a
forest bird, somewhat solitary in habits.
=Sturnus philippensis= (Forster)