_Remarks._--At Guam, the NAMRU2 party observed the ground dove to be
fairly common in 1945. Along roadways, the present author (1947b:124)
found that individuals of this species comprised 2.5 percent of the
total population of birds observed, and the ground dove was seen on 31.2
percent of 125 road counts made. The male was much more in evidence than
the female and was frequently seen flying high over the roadways and
jungle areas; eighty percent of the ground doves seen while road-counts
were being made were males. The female was found less frequently; it was
a less conspicuous bird and was seen only occasionally in flight.
Neither sex appeared to have the secretive, terrestrial habits of _G.
canifrons_ of the Palau Islands. On the basis of our observations at
Guam, I would say that the name "ground dove" for the bird at Guam is
not descriptive. The birds were found to spend considerable time in tall
trees; the closest that I saw them to the ground was when they were
feeding only three to four feet from the ground in the ink berry bushes.
The call note of this dove is much like that of the Palau Ground Dove;
Seale (1901:42) describes it as follows, "These pigeons seem to prefer
the deep jungle, from whence their deep low moan, like the sound of a
man dying in great distress, comes with a weird uncanny effect,
heightened by the gloom and darkness of the unknown forest.... This
sound, which always seems to come from a long distance, is very
misleading, and one is considerably surprised to find he is perhaps
within a few feet of the bird." Seale writes that they were very common
on Guam in 1900. In 1931, Coultas found the dove "quite common at the
north end of the island." The bird apparently prefers the dense forest
or second growth brushy areas, but was found also in the partly cleared
areas surrounding the NAMRU2 headquarters at Oca Point in 1945. At Rota,
the NAMRU2 party found the birds to be numerous in 1945. Coultas
observed only a few birds on Tinian in 1931; Downs (1946:96) found only
a small population at this island in 1945. The extensive cultivation and
clearing activities at Tinian have removed much of the habitat suitable
for these, as well as other birds. At Saipan, Stott (1947:526) writes
that the bird is common on "brush-covered hillsides and semi-wooded
country." There is little information published regarding the status of
this dove in the northern Marianas.
=Gallicolumba xanthonura kubaryi= (Finsch)
White-throated Ground Dove
_Phlegoenas Kubaryi_ Finsch, Journ. f. Ornith., 1880, p. 292. (Type
locality, Ruck and Ponapé.)
_Phlegoenas erythroptera_ Bonaparte, Consp. Avium, 2, 1854, p. 89
(Carolines); Reichenbach, Tauben, 1862, p. 41 (Carolines); Finsch,
Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1877 (1878), p. 780 (Ponapé); _idem_,
Ibis, 1881, p. 115 (Ponapé); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth.
Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, pp. 281, 353 (Ponapé, Ruk); Tristram, Cat.
Birds, 1889, p. 41 (Ruk).
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