The NAMRU2 field parties found _H. brevipes_ as singles or in small
groups of five or less. They remained apart from other species and
appeared to prefer rocky beaches and coral-reef rocks to the sandy
beaches. At Guam in 1945, the latest spring migrants were taken on May
29. These birds were in nuptial plumage. Birds taken at Bikini by
Morrison on February 26 and April 28, 1946, were in worn, winter
plumage. At Guam, the NAMRU2 observers obtained the first fall migrants
on September 19. These observations in 1945, showed that _H. incanus_
arrived at Guam on its southbound flight fully one month after the first
individuals of _H. brevipes_ began to appear (mid-July). This difference
may partly result from the fact that the distance to the Asiatic
breeding grounds of _H. brevipes_ is not so great as that to the
American breeding grounds of _H. incanus_.
Whether the two tattlers, _H. brevipes_ and _H. incanus_, are distinct
species (allopatric species insofar as breeding ranges are concerned),
or whether they are mere subspecies (geographic races) is open to
question. I failed to find evidences of intergradation in the few
specimens which I examined critically; however, the final answer to the
problem might be obtained by collecting series of birds from breeding
grounds where ranges closely approach each other or overlap (if they
do). Stickney (1943:6, 7) lists the distinctive differences in these two
birds, particularly the character of the nasal groove, and does not
mention having found any evidence of intergradation. Wetmore (in
Townsend and Wetmore, 1919:180) gives evidence that they belong to two
separate species.
=Arenaria interpres interpres= (Linnaeus)
Turnstone
_Tringa Interpres_ Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, 1758, p. 148.
(Type locality, Europe and North America, restricted to Gotland,
Sweden.)
_Tringa interpres_ Quoy and Gaimard, Voy. "Uranie," Zool., 1824,
p. 708 (Guam).
_Strepsila collaris_ Kittlitz, Obser. Zool., in Lutké, Voy. "Le
Séniavine," 3, 1836, pp. 287, 299, 304 (Ualan, Lougounor, Guahan);
_idem_, Denkw. Reise russ. Amer. Micron. und Kamchat., 2, 1858, p.
32 (Ualan).
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