The Ponapé Cicada Bird, _E. t. insperatum_, appears to represent a
colonization distinct from that which established the populations at Yap
and Palau. This conclusion is based on the fact that the adult female of
_E. t. insperatum_ has distinctive reddish coloring and lacks the
barring on the underparts, and that it may have been derived from an
ancestral stock, which was reddish and not barred, such as _E. t.
remotum_ of the New Ireland area. The three subspecies in Micronesia may
represent remnants of a single colonization, since additional material
from Yap may prove that this island population has characters
intermediate between those of the other subspecies of Micronesia.
=Dicrurus macrocercus harterti= S. Baker
Black Drongo
_Dicrurus ater harterti_ S. Baker, Novit. Zool., 26, 1918, p. 299.
(Type locality, Formosa.)
_Dicrurus macrocercus_ Baker, Trans. 11th N. Amer. Wildlife Conf.,
1946, p. 211 (Rota).
_Dicrurus macrocercus harterti_ Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol.
107, no. 15, 1948, p. 65 (Rota).
_Geographic range._--Formosa. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands--Rota
(introduced).
_Specimens examined._--Total number, 7 (4 males, 3 females), from
Mariana Islands, USNM--Rota (Oct. 18, 19, Nov. 2).
_Remarks._--This drongo was introduced from Formosa to Rota by the
Japanese South Seas Development Company (Nanyo Kohatsu Kabushiki Kaisha)
apparently in 1935. An illustrated booklet, printed by this organization
and seen by members of the NAMRU2 party at the Rota Civil Government
headquarters, showed pictures of the captive birds before release and
indicated that they had been brought to Rota for the purpose of
controlling destructive insects. Dr. Charles Vaurie has examined these
birds and compared them with a series of drongos from Formosa in the
collection of the American Museum of Natural History.
The drongo appears well adapted at Rota, where it prefers cultivated
areas and the bombed village sites to thick woodlands. Birds were found
in small flocks often perched in large shade trees in village areas.
Weights of two immature males are 53 and 61 grams. One adult male
measures: wing, 144, tail, 153, culmen, 26, tarsus, 22.
=Corvus kubaryi= Reichenow
Marianas Crow
_Corvus Kubaryi_ Reichenow, Journ. f. Ornith., 1885, p. 110. (Type
locality, Palau, error = Guam.)
_Corvus solitarius_ Kittlitz, Obser. Zool., in Lutké, Voy. "Le
Séniavine," 3, 1836, p. 305 (Guahan); Bonaparte, Comptes Rendus
Acad. Sci. Paris, 37, 1853, p. 830 (Mariannes); Kittlitz, Denkw.
Reise russ. Amer. Micron. und Kamchat., 2, 1858, p. 143 (Guahan);
Oustalet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, (3), 7, 1895, p. 216
(Guam and Rota).
_Corvus_ spec. Hartlaub, Journ. f. Ornith., 1854, p. 167
(Mariannen); Gray, Hand-list Birds, 2, 1870, p. 12 (Marianne).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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