_Erythrura trichroa pelewensis_ Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds
Micronesia, 1922, p. 27. (Type locality, Pelew Islands).
_Erythrura trichroa pelewensis_ Kuroda, Ibis, 1927, p. 692
(Pelew); Mayr. Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 489, 1931, p. 4 (Pelew);
Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 171 (Palau); Hand-list
Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 189 (Babelthuap); Mayr, Birds
Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 301 (Palau).
_Chloromunia trichroa pelewensis_ Mathews, Syst. Avium
Australasianarum, 2, 1930, p. 840 (Pelew).
_Geographic range._--Micronesia: Palau Islands--Babelthuap.
_Characters._--Kuroda (1922a:27) describes the bird as follows,
"Resembles _E. trichroa_ (Kittlitz) from Carolines (the type from
Kusaie), but distinguishable from it by the bill being much
thicker and stouter, by the chin being tinged with blue, by the
under-parts being paler throughout and somewhat tinged with
bluish, by the rump and upper tail-coverts being bright crimson
instead of dull crimson, by the central tail-feathers brownish red
instead of dull crimson, by the distinct shafts of central
tail-feathers and by longer wing and tail."
_Measurements._--The measurements by Kuroda of a single specimen
are listed in table 53.
_Remarks._--Only one specimen of this subspecies is known. The NAMRU2
party did not obtain any record of it in the southern Palaus in 1945. If
still present in the islands, it may be confined to the higher forested
areas of Babelthuap.
_Evolutionary history of Erythrura trichroa in Micronesia._--The
Blue-faced Parrot-finch has been recorded from Kusaie, Ponapé, Truk and
Palau, which are all "high" islands of southern Micronesia. This bird
belongs to a species which occurs in Melanesia, northern Australia,
Celebes, and the Moluccas. Stresemann (1940:40) points out the
interesting observation that this species ranges only east of Wallace's
Line. Mayr (1931c:1-10) has reviewed the parrot-finches of the genus
_Erythrura_ and places _E. trichroa_ in the subgenus _Erythrura_, noting
that _E. t. cyaneifrons_ from Banks and the New Hebrides is similar to
the subspecies found in Micronesia. As a group the subspecies of _E.
trichroa_ are very similar, but the populations in Micronesia appear
closest to subspecies from the Solomons, Admiralty Islands and possibly
to _E. t. modesta_ from the Moluccas, which appears to indicate that
Micronesia was invaded from the south or from the southwest via the
Moluccas. Whether the little known subspecies at Palau represents an
independent invader from the Moluccas is uncertain.
=Lonchura nigerrima minor= (Yamashina)