Full text of "Bulletin"

See other formats

i ' : i aie tea wrdcted Feud te ye
Ls aa ¥ ta) nh LEN SPOR,
e es - e x a Sint =

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

OF THE

Museum of Comparative Zoology

iti a
a; ib.
Be ; ;
=A ; a
Lewes oa
\
oy
,
e
i
*
= : ;
'
i)
‘ “

Osan

Pade a
a ae “i my

,) ee
n>
j

Peabody Museum of Natural History
Yale University
Bulletin 19

A Systematic and
Ecological Study of Birds
of New Guinea

by |
S. Dillon Ripley

A SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY
OF BIRDS OF NEW GUINEA

, : nk

ony ah ae .

«
,
tea
Vite, hts)

PEABODY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
YALE UNIVERSITY
BULLETIN 19

A Systematic and Ecological Study
of Birds of New Guinea

BY
S. DILLON RIPLEY

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
1964

Printed in the United States of America

MUS. COMP. ZOOL
LIBRARY
AAD 21 A0GA
H FAT v 2H S04
HARVARD
UNIVERSITY,

KILOMETERS
10

4
TAN

Z My wy,

Show

Www”

ww
“ins
as 1

» Tt n&
Th

4 eer te,

Weel etgy
WOON age,

“h,

CUM Mage,

@" Fite.
"

rene
Saat”

wn
TD

b, M4 Wt,
De Innit UE ae
2 4, ¢

s Eyer

a Fg Wi g
= co? 4s
= 4, ig, Fania,

YAN

a ‘ y UI ua RAY y
: f an iw My 7 : es

D In 4%

War
F : M,
ity, ln, any %

We a “~ BOKONDINI}+ 7%,

? wl
Mu a0 Coy iy,
's “% Z. om 4 q

Gay yats 24 5
; yr i = fini, 2 lS,” Z Ly,
. or whe rs eth, ' be Archbold L
. KELILA >

Mya,
soe (KADUBAGA)"™

- RY

Ms,

ohn,

',
“Wy,

PSs

@ PYRAMID\_o TUL

Orly
pel <i “Any,

>
Arne

anes,
wins ss

m1
Ky nt 4
tly ZRII Ny

a >
wi Aer tay

CARSTENZ PEAKS saan ak
Mg AWW G,, 1817 gates’

"ey, L. HABBEMA

ae EES

TANT WWW

y
4
4, sy

One,
wes,

137°30' 138° 30
Shirley G, Hartman

Figure 1. Map of the central highlands area mentioned in the text showing the Ilaga and west Baliem valleys, the Bokindini and swart valleys and the missionary airstrips. The air-
strips are omitted in the Baliem Valley. Note: An alternate spelling of Bokindini is Bokondini.

CONTENTS

LisT OF ILLUSTRATIONS vi
ABSTRACT 1
INTRODUCTION, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND ITINERARY 92
HABITATS 5

ALTITUDINAL SHIFTS OF RANGE AND ECOLOGICAL OVERLAP
AT FEEDING TREES 6

a |

EXTENSIONS OF RANGE

BREEDING SEASON

SPECIES ACCOUNT 12
LITERATURE CITED 76
INDEX fis
Piates I—II 86-87

PLATES

d dak

1 6 Ee

. Sirikena at the Moasets bivouac (560 m altitude = c. 1800 ft), Lower

FIGURES

ILLUSTRATIONS

Hollandia Bay from Holtekong looking west towards Sentani.
Mrs. Ripley and Jusup Khakiaj with cassowary chick.

. Ilaga River, 7ooo feet. Dani rattan and wood bridge.

. Dani village dancing area, 7500 feet. Casuarina and pandanus trees in

background, looking southwest towards upland plateau trail to west
Baliem at gooo feet.

Nest of Lonchura tristissima.

Mamberano River. Collection of Megapodius and Talegalla eggs.

. Lowland forest with slash cultivation of cassava and plantain in fore-

ground. Bodim, 300 feet altitude.

. Uhunduni hunter with stone ax, Ilaga 7500 feet.
82 75

. Map of the central highlands area.

. Contour feathers from specimens of the Australian Gray Duck, Anas

superciliosa pelewensis.

. Head and bill of Rhamphomantis megarhynchus specimens.

YALE UNIVERSITY PEABODY MusEUM OF NATURAL HiIsToRY BULLETIN NO. 19, 87P., 2 PLS.,
3 TEXT-FIGS., 1964

A SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY
OF BIRDS OF NEW GUINEA

By S. DILLON RIPLEY

ABSTRACT

During two trips to West New Guinea in 1954 and 1960, the author made an extensive
collection of birds as well as field notes in a variety of habitats ranging from the western islands
adjacent to the coast of West New Guinea, the northern coastal areas from Sarmi to Hollandia
(Kotabaru), and the mountains of the interior including a newly-opened valley, the Ilaga, in
the Nassau Range. Some three hundred eighty-two forms of birds were observed during a four-
month period. Descriptions of the habitats are given. In addition discussion is made of altitudinal
shifts of range and the phenomenon of crowding and overlap of related species at feeding trees.
At such feeding trees under compacted situations, high intensity calls and demonstrations of
aggressive behavior occur.

Extensions of range are listed and data on breeding seasons are presented indicating over-
whelmingly that similar species breed at two rather different seasons geographically, earlier in
the calendar year in the central areas of West New Guinea, later in the calendar year in the
western islands and west coast, presumably correlated with the weather and monsoonal seasons.
In the species list a considerable number of field notes are included as well as native names
and occasional] native beliefs.

A SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY
OF BIRDS OF NEW GUINEA*

S. DILLON RIPLEY

INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNT AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In 1954, my wife and I made a trip into the northern Moluccan islands of
eastern Indonesia. For this journey I was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellow-
ship, as well as a grant from the National Science Foundation (no. B-664). In
addition, I received a grant from the Vose Fund of the Explorer’s Club of New
York. In 1960, a further summer’s field work in the then Netherlands New Guinea
(now West Irian) was aided by a grant from the Penrose Fund of the American
Philosophical Society. To all of these distinguished organizations I am most
grateful for valued aid and support.

I am very grateful to the authorities of the American Museum of Natural
History for permission to work with their collections. I have been in frequent
consultation with Dr. Thomas Gilliard and Dr. A. L. Rand, co-authors of the
New Guinea handbook, which will be published in 1964. I wish to thank Shirley
Hartman for her help with two drawings and a map, as well as John Howard for
photographic reproductions.

New Guinea, particularly that part known now as West Irian, formerly
Netherlands New Guinea and the adjacent islands, is still not well known
ornithologically although expeditions have been visiting the island and reporting
on collections, essentially in a taxonomically descriptive sense, since the days of
A. R. Wallace in the early Eighteen Fifties. However, many areas of this rich and
strongly diversified habitat still remain unexplored faunistically. The latest large
effort at biological exploration was that of the Archbold Expedition of the
American Museum of Natural History of 1938-39, primarily into the previously
unexplored highlands of the central mountain ranges near Mount Wilhelmina
and the Baliem Valley. That expedition was a landmark of exploration in New
Guinea, using an amphibian plane, vast numbers of porters, paramilitary as-
sistance from the Netherlands authorities, and a staff of some seven scientists as
well as assistants. Altogether a notable contribution was made to recording the
fauna of the area. Several of the more important papers were published as
“Results of the Archbold Expeditions,’ Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., and Amer.
Mus. Novitates, various dates, primarily 1940-1942. Some three hundred and
eighty forms of birds were observed and noted on that expedition.

In the 1954 trip, I was concerned with observations on species of birds of
Malaysian or of Papuan affinity which might coexist in the interstitial habitats
of the Moluccas. In addition, I was concerned with problems of competition
between species. Unfortunately, various difficulties confront a European or
American today in travelling in the Moluccas. The islands are not accessible by
plane, and boat service is infrequent, the only current transport being the Indo-

*Published with the aid of a National Science Foundation Publication Grant, No. GN-223.

INTRODUCTION 3

nesian government-run boats called Nocemo. Occasionally an official government
vessel may make a tour of some of the islands. The capital of the North Moluccas
is Ternate, where my friend, Alting Abid Din Shah, Sultan of Tidore, was at that
time governor. The Kapala Daerah, his official title, was kindness itself, and our
trip was really made feasible by his intervention and aid. Our gratitude to him
and his wife is unending.

The fact that I had begun to speak the Indonesian language in 1937 on my
first trip to New Guinea and its neighboring islands was of the greatest impor-
tance. Our subsequent travels would have been impossible without our knowing
the local language. Food and equipment of all sorts is difficult in these outer
islands, and our expedition was not aided by the unexplained disappearance of
all the food we had purchased at premium prices in Java on the way out. Even
rice is imported into these islands with difficulty from the Greater Sunda Islands
and was always in threatened short supply.

We had initially planned to concentrate on Halmahera but this was made
impossible by the activities of guerilla bands of the Dar ’ul Islam movement, with
the result that we spent only a few days near Djailolo, making observations al-
ready reported upon (1959C). In the end we spent five weeks on Batjan, climbing
Mount Sibela (6000 ft) in the process. This proved to be a difficult feat as even
the inhabitants of Labuha, Batjan’s capital, were unable to direct us to a route
by which the only real mountain of the island could be ascended. A British
botanist named Allston had recently preceded us and had been in the end foiled
by a welter of misdirections. Our efforts were successful only when we abandoned
our first route and proceeded to the bay of Waiaua from which deer-hunter
trails climb up to the eastern hogback which forms one of the spurs of Sibela. Our
work in the Moluccas, which had been sanctioned by the Museum Zoologicum
Bogoriense, was greatly aided by one of their late mantris (assistants), Saan, who
proved a loyal and devoted companion.

Our final month’s work was spent on Misool, an island then in Dutch hands, to
visit which we had to proceed via Makassar as a port of exit, to Dilli in Portu-
guese Timor and there catch the monthly KPM mail and cargo boat running
from Singapore to New Guinea. In Sorong, which I had last visited in 1938, we
were treated with the greatest consideration by the government officials from the
Assistant Resident Mr. van Bodegom down, as well as by my old friend, Ong
Tjoean, one of the chief Chinese merchants of the town. Here I was reunited with
Jusup Khakiaj, an assistant who had worked for me and for the Academy of
Natural Sciences from 1937 to 1939 and who had survived the last war totally
unchanged except for gray hair. Jusup continued to work for me into 1955 col-
lecting on Misool, Waigeu, the Ajoe Islands and Kofiau (1959B), and again in
1960 on our return. The month’s work on Misool in 1954 was made notable by
the discovery of four species of megapodes on the same small island, a fact of
which I had not been aware during an earlier visit in 1937, nor had other
naturalists ever come across these birds.

In 1960 my wife, three children and I returned to New Guinea for yet another
session of field work in the Hollandia area. This visit was made possible by the
generous cooperation of Dr. Victor de Bruijn, the Advisor to the Governor on
tribal and Papuan affairs, and also with the aid of the Christian and Missionary
Alliance and the Missionary Aviation Fellowship. The Netherlands government
officials from the Governor, Dr. P. J. Platteel, on down, were all cordiality itself
and our summer was made tolerable by the kindnesses shown to our children in
the small Government Hotel at Dock V.

4 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

My first hope had been to continue studies of the megapodes, and we com-
menced operations by a field trip to the Tami River and later to Holtekong, both
sites in the eastern reaches of Hollandia Bay, a vast complex of sub-bays, river
mouths, tidal mangrove and beaches. The lateness of the season and the failure
of my tape recording equipment as well as camera difficulties seriously impaired
these observations. The lowland brush turkey, Talegalla jobiensis, in this area is
heavily preyed upon by Varanus lizards who perhaps follow up human trails as
well as locating the nest mounds on their own. Eggs that I attempted to keep
under observation were stolen by “‘soa-soa,” as these reptiles are called in Indo-
nesian, and all I could do was make observations on nest mounds. The incessant
rain and lack of adequate water-proofing were as much a hazard to mechanical
equipment in the New Guinea lowlands in 1960 as they had ever been.

Our second visit was to a forestry development suggested to us by the Bureau
for Economic Affairs. This was a lumber camp called Bodim, some 100 kilometers
south of the north coast where the Tor River enters the sea east of Sarmi. We
ascended the Tor for some 80 kilometers by double ‘“‘prahu” powered by outboard
motors to its junction with the Boe (Boefareh on some maps). Both rivers arise in
the Gauttier and Foja Mountains. Some 20 kilometers up the Boe there is a small
lumber depot and a trail leading 8 kilometers to the north into low foothills and
dense stands of primary forest, dominated by dammar (Agathis) trees. Here we
camped at an altitude of 300 feet above sea level for three weeks observing birds.
Unfortunately the megapodes, said to be plentiful in the area, had been vir-
tually wiped out by local hunting pressure due to the labor influx for the
lumber work.

Our final visit was to the Ilaga valley, an extension of the east-west mountain
valley system cradled in the Nassau range, just ten miles east northeast of the
Carstenz peaks. The Ilaga river flows through this valley at an altitude of
approximately 7000 feet above sea level, while cultivation of sweet potatoes,
sugar cane, taro, potatoes, tomatoes and edible grasses extends up along the slopes
to approximately 7700 feet, making this one of the highest cultivated areas in
New Guinea. The population consists of about 6000 Western Danis and 2000
Uhundunis, the latter occupying villages on the southern slopes of the valley. ‘The
first outside contact with these people had been by missionaries in 1954, but it was
not until 1956 that an invitation had come from the Danis for missionaries to enter
the valley. The actual settlement by two missionary families, the Gordon Larsons
and the Ellenbergers, had come two years later. Our stay in the valley would have
been impossible without the generous welcome of these families and the two nurses,
Miss Charlotte Schon and Miss Elizabeth Little, who had recently joined them. On
the flight by Cessna monoplane up to the Maga, piloted by Miss Elizabeth Green,
the remarkable Missionary Aviation Fellowship pilot, we were suddenly off-
loaded due to a shutting down of the clouds in the mountains at a small strip,
Bokindini, at 4500 feet altitude, where we were graciously put up for two nights
by Mr. and Mrs. Garnet Erickson of the Australian Evangelical Mission until
Miss Green could fly in again and take us on to the Ilaga. To all these kindly
friends our thanks are due, and we often wonder, now that political events have
changed the future of the Papuans so drastically, what their future will be in
these strange mountains. During these travels we managed to make notes, observe
and collect some three hundred and eighty-two forms of birds. Short publications
on some of these species have already appeared in Postilla of the Peabody Mu-
seum, 1957 and 1959, as well as in the Proceedings of the XIIth Internat. Ornith.
Congress, Helsinki, 1958, published in 1960. In addition, I have quoted from an

HABITATS 5

unpublished note by Philip Temple of the New Zealand New Guinea Expedition
of 1961.

On the conclusion of our trip, Jusup Khakiaj stayed on in the New Guinea
highlands in the Baliem Valley with members of the Harvard Peabody Museum
anthropology expedition. His collection was made sporadically, during his spare
time, but enabled us to secure a number of new records and additional species
in the period up until early 1962, when the expedition was concluded. Sub-
sequently Miss Denise O’Brien, a Yale graduate student in Anthropology,
obtained some birds for us in the Swart Valley in 1962.

HABITATS

The lowland habitats of New Guinea where our work was undertaken consist
of the dense closed forest on Misool, and similar areas along the Tami River in
eastern Geelvink Bay. A good description of the beach, secondary and lowland
forest associations is in Gibbs (1917) as well as the summary by Archbold, Rand
and Brass (1942), and Lam (1945). Coastal forest consists of stands of mangrove,
interspersed with casuarina along the beaches, and a wealth of Pandanus species
inland on marshy, wet ground. Here and there, especially near Hollandia and
round Lake Sentani, but also along the Tor river banks in the ox-bow bends,
there are stands of grassland, Jmperata or “‘lalang” and Saccharum as well as lesser
sedges, grasses and ground orchids, Spathoglottis.

Inland along the meandering rivers and back from them as far inland as
Bodim, we found ourselves essentially in climax evergreen forest. Along the banks
of the Tami and Tor rivers, swampy species of trees occurred, breadfruits,
Artocarpus, pandanus, Hibiscus, occasional pockets of enclosed marsh with sago
palm, Metroxylon. The river edges also included occasional Barringtonia, Timon-
ius, and Syzygium, which, with small Ficus species was alive with flocks of parrots
and lories in June and more particularly in July.

The high forest at Bodim was dominated by Agathis, Polygonum, Intsia, Ficus
of many species and Pittosporum. Lower substage trees included Eugenia species,
many palms including Licuala, (on whose leaves I found a nest of Ptilinopus)
Borassus, Cyrtostachys and of course the climbing Calamus (associated with a nest
of Lonchura) and Korthalsia. Here and there on the ridges above Bodim an
occasional oak tree occurred, but we did not work in the mid-stage forests from
1500 feet up.

The Baliem valley and the Lower Ilaga valley are almost totally deforested.
Here fields and grassland are interspersed with small areas of cut-over scrub.
Casuarina trees dominate the landscape often near villages, and the low shrubbery
consists of bracken, Pteridium, various rhododendrons, Grevilea, Euphorbia, Vac-
cinium, Rubus, ground orchids, grasses, Saccharum, Pennisetum, Phragmites,
Imperata, and Sorghum. The cultivated plants in the Ilaga were sweet potato,
pandanus, “sirih,” taro, sugar cane, and recently introduced tomatoes and irish
potatoes. Gourds also are grown, Lagenaria, to be dried and used as penis sheaths.

In the upper Ilaga valley we penetrated into dense beech forest, Nothofagus,
full of tree ferns, mosses and epiphytes, including more Calamus and climbing
bamboos. At the higher levels above 9000 feet, we occasionally broke into open
marshy flat areas of moorland, the floor of peat containing tussocks of sedge,
Gahnia, and peat-stained streamlets and pools. Here there were edges of bracken
fern, and low vacciniums and rhododendrons. The open areas of forest near these
swampy patches were dominated by Podocarpus and occasional Libocedrus.

6 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

Above 9500 feet lies the heath and moor zone with low alpines, peatmosses and a
rich variety of epiphytes. This alpine zone forms an undulating plateau, unin-
habited, but crisscrossed by overland trails running north and south to connect
Uhunduni or Dani settlements, and east and west from the grand valley of the
Baliem in the east, west to the feeder valleys of the Wissel Lakes.

ALTITUDINAL SHIFTS OF RANGE AND ECOLOGICAL OVERLAP AT FEEDING TREES

In mountainous tropical environments, related bird species are isolated from
each other ecologically in a variety of interesting and effective ways. One of these
is the rather strict stratification that occurs by altitude. Many authors have com-
mented on the zonation of species in this manner, and Rand (1942) drew attention
to the major or minor physical variations in size between populations of the
same species or subspecies which could be observed while travelling upwards into
the montane zones of New Guinea. Such physical differences could only mark the
occurrence of genetic isolate populations in which any such change, or Berg-
mann-like effect, would be preserved. Everything that we have ever learned of
ranges of birds in New Guinea tends to reinforce this general observation.

Occasionally, however, observations can be made of bird species wandering or
temporarily shifting range. Some recent publications such as those of Slud (1960)
have evinced cases of this kind in the New World tropics. Frith (1957) has
published on feeding movements of pigeons in Australia, as has Smythies (1960)
for Borneo. Chapin (1954) has mentioned altitudinal feeding movements of
starlings, Onychognathus, on Mount Ruwenzori, as has Moreau to me (in litt.)
on Mount Kenya, Onychognathus and Pocoptera.

Thus it was extremely interesting for me to come across cases where known
highland species were entirely out of their normal range, competing for food
with closely related, normally ecologically separated species.

The first case occurred on Batjan Island at Gandasuli, altitude 350 feet above
sea level, during the period September 26-October 1. The local albizzia trees
(Albizzia molucca) were in flower. Although Myzomela obscura simplex, the
common lowland small honeyeater was normally in evidence in these trees, we
also collected the similar-sized Myzomela dibapha batjanensis in the same single
tree during the six-day period. Otherwise the highland honeyeater, dibapha, was
found only on the Sibela ridge at 5000 feet and above.

Zosterops atriceps and Dicaeum erythrothorax were also feeding in the same
tree, but in greatly reduced numbers. They were quiet and unobtrusive, Dicaewm
making its ticking calls only as it left the tree in flight. However, the two
Myzomela species were very noisy, making loud buzzing notes and calling inces-
santly, as I have described in an earlier paper (1959A). Whereas I pointed out in
that paper that obscwra was widely scattered at a low density over the lowlands
of Batjan, and appeared to be highly aggressive when in contact with similar-sized
sunbird species, here was an occasion where aggression was temporarily suspended
for securing food. The result seemed to be achieved in a series of darts and dashes
through the feeding tree, accompanied by noisy buzzings. In contrast to the silent
yet intent behavior of feeding species of honeycreepers, Diglossa and Conirostrum,
in competition with each other for food in the Ecuadorian Andes, described by
Moynihan (1963), these species were very noisy. Constant movement and displace-
ment, one individual by another, was the pattern, accompanied by advertising or
warning notes. Moynihan notices the absence of overt short-range disputes be-
tween interspecific contacts. In contrast, I noted a high degree of activity with

RANGE AND BREEDING SEASON 7

frequent short chasings indicating overt aggression. This behavior parallels that
observed in captive waterfowl (unpublished).

A second case occurred at Bodim on the Boe River where a cluster of three
myrtaceous flowering trees attracted honeyeaters and lorikeets during the period
July 29-August 2. Here Myzomela eques primitiva was the common lowland
honeyeater, but we managed also to secure a single Myzomela nigrita meyeri, not
common at all at this low altitude. Here also we found three species of lorikeets,
Charmosyna pulchella rothschildi, Charmosyna r. rubronotata and Charmosyna
placentis ornata, feeding in the same tree. Again, as on Batjan, we were attracted
by the high intensity of buzzing calls and parakeet shrieks made by the birds as
they fed on the nectar of the tree flowers. It was not continuous. The noise rose
and fell as flocks of lorikeets left the tree or arrived, and it broke out at intervals
as birds crowded together. There was considerable competition for perch space
by from two to seven lorikeets at a time crowding onto a favorable feeding post.
The honeyeaters, Myzomela, tended to dart about with buzzings and squeakings
in the tree as much as they had been doing on Batjan. A few larger nectar-eating
parrots also fed in the trees, but were not identified as well as two larger honey-
eaters, Xanthotis chrysotis and polygramma. Competition within a micro-habitat
seemed to be occurring between three species of lorikeets, one of which was col-
lected several hundred miles west of its known range, and another of which,
Charmosyna pulchella, is normally a more montane species (see later discussion,
p. 31-32).

A third case is that of the two Alpine Lorikeets, Neopsittacus musschenbroekii
and N. pullicauda, found in the same feeding trees in the Ilaga. Presumably these
species have a wide overlap in altitudinal range between 2200-2800 meters (7250-
9500 feet) where they coexist. The smaller sibling occupies the higher range.

EXTENSIONS OF RANGE

An additional subject concerns extensions of range. It seems obvious that
peaceful conditions in the Baliem Valley and north at lower levels towards
Archbold Lake have created new environments. Increased agriculture has resulted
in new habitats for water birds and birds of open country, not previously collected
above a few thousand feet. As in other tropical countries such as Ceylon (1946),
changing habitats, the creation of plantations, and the destruction of forests
allow these species to exploit new altitudinal ranges. The following species are
here recorded from the Baliem valley or other highlands for the first time:

Pelecanus conspicillatus Columba vitiensis halmaheira
Hydranassa picata Opopsitta d. diopthalma

Egretta alba modesta Cacatua galerita triton (Jalimo, Baliem?)
Egretta intermedia plumifera Halcyon s. sancta (up to 7500 ft)
Nycticorax caledonicus hilli Aplonis cantoroides

Haliastur indus girrenera (7500 ft) Monarcha rubiensis
Accipiter cirrhocephalus papuanus Philemon novaeguineae jobiensis
Porphyrio poliocephalus melanotus

BREEDING SEASON

The following list includes all those bird species for which we obtained some
evidence of a breeding cycle from gonadal activity of specimens dissected. Where
a question mark follows the record it refers to the presumption of breeding from
the fact that only males possessed enlarged gonads. In some cases only young

8 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

juvenile or nestling birds were collected. In other cases the only record is the
notation made by my assistant, Khakiaj, on a specimen label, where I, myself,
was not present at the time of dissection. ‘The latter records refer essentially to
March or April birds from the Baliem. In a number of cases males only showed
enlarged testes and from the onset of moult we assumed that gonadal regression
had set in and that actual nesting had just concluded. Here I have made an entry
for the month to indicate some activity and an entry followed by a question mark
to indicate the supposition that breeding had occurred in the preceding month.

The data following show conclusively that in the central areas of the island
where we collected, Hollandia, Bodim and the mountains, the breeding season
is in the southeast trade wind season, May to October, which is on average, the
dry season with only thirty-six per cent of the annual rainfall. A few species give
evidence of having two breeding seasons (two ducks, a megapode, two warblers, a
thickhead, honeyeater, flowerpecker and white-eye). The evidence is inconclusive,
but at least suggestive.

In contrast to this the western island breeding season of extreme western New
Guinea, Sele Strait, Misool, Waigeu, Kofiao, etc., and one or two references to
adjacent Batjan Island in the Moluccas, is overwhelmingly in the months October
to January, namely the interim period between the end of the southeast trade
wind season (which is rougher with more storms in the western islands like
Misool) and the beginning of the rather uncertain northwest monsoon which
traditionally begins in November, but often in the western area, does not become
really rainy until February. Thus it would appear that most species have young
well on the wing and are entering the completion of the moult cycle by the onset
of the rainy season. The only exception appears to be the starlings in which
breeding activity in the western areas apparently occurs as early as August
(Aplonis mysolensis). Gyldenstolpe (1955B) records breeding starlings collected
by Bergman in August and September. One of the rails also, Gymnocrex plum-
beiventris, appears to breed as early as September. Otherwise the trend appears
unmistakable.

Central New Guinea,

i.e. Hollandia, Tami, Bodim,

Nassau, Baliem

# = Western New Guinea, Arar,
Misool, Waigeu

o = Batjan

*
I

LJIFIM/AIM|J/JIA[S/O[N|D
Podiceps ruficollis tricolor > ale < x
Dupetor flavicollis gouldi Kea 1K
Threskiornis moluccus #
Anas gibberifrons gracilis x
Anas superciliosa pelewensis Keke, x) eee
Salvadorina waigeuensts Mey eK, x
Megapodius freycinet freycinet
Megapodius freycinet affints
Megapodius wallacei . ee
Talegalla cuvieri #?
Talegalla j. jobiensis xe Kh x?
Coturnix chinensis novaeguineae > gad: x
Rallus pectoralis captus DRL <A

SNC pM IRS i) Ooi)

SR XS FR

RANGE AND BREEDING SEASON 9

x = Central New Guinea,
i.e. Hollandia, Tami, Bodim,

Nassau, Baliem

# = Western New Guinea, Arar,

Misool, Waigeu
o = Batjan

Peavey Wee Ma SI Seas as) Ni), D

Porzana tabuensis edwardt edb. de

Poliolimnas cinereus minimus x?

Gymnocrex p. plumbeiventris of
Amaurornis olivaceus frankit Oo
Porphyrio poliocephalus melanotus xe

Trediparra gallinacea novae-guineae iy cp

Sterna s. sumatrana

Ptilinopus s. superbus x?
Ptilinopus pulchellus decorus x) xX

Ptilinopus coronulatus trigeminus Ht?

Ptilinopus coronulatus quadrigeminus XP ak? Xn ex

Ptilinopus iozonus humeralis #

Ptilinopus itozonus jobtensis ms

Ptilinopus rivolt bellus x

Ptilinopus viridis salvadorw x

Ptilinopus aurantifrons x

Megaloprepia magnifica septentrionalis XU xe x

Ducula m. myristicivora #
Ducula bicolor Oy 40
Gymnophaps a. albertistt x
Reinwardtoena reinwardtst griseotincta Kg ex
Henicophaps a. albtfrons x

Gallicolumba r. rufigula

Gallicolumba r. septentrionalis x

Goura victoria beccarit
Chalcopsitta a. atra

Trichoglossus h. haematodus #

Lortus 1. lory
Lorius 1. viridicrissalis

Charmosyna papou goliathina 524

Micropsitta ketensis chloroxantha : Lo a
Probosciger aterrimus goliath #
Alisterus chloropterus moszkowskit x XY

Psittacella lorentzt

Cacomantis pyrrophanus excitus x
Cacomantts castaneiventris arfakianus x #?

Podargus papuensis
Podargus ocellatus

Caprimulgus macrurus schillméllert oO

Caprimulgus macrurus yorkt xr
Collocalia vanikorensts granti x?

Hemiprocne mystacea confirmata fe)

Alcyone azurea lessonit

Merops philippinus salvadorit x

Aceros plicatus ruficollis

Pitta erythrogaster macklotit #
Pitta sordida novae-guineae #

Cracticus c. cassicus

ay spay aaa i Asi ot ND

x = Central New Guinea,
i.e. Hollandia, Tami, Bodim,
Nassau, Baliem

# = Western New Guinea, Arar,
Misool, Waigeu

o = Batjan

LT) F IM) Al Moa A Soa

Cracticus q. quoyt

Oriolus szalayt

Dicrurus hottentotus carbonarius
Artamus maximus

Aplonis cantoroides

Aplonis m. mysolensis

Aplonis m. metallica

Mino dumontii violaceus

Corvus tristis

Corvus 0. orru

Loria I. loriae

Macgregoria pulchra carolinae
Manucodia jobiensis rubiensis
Ptiloris m. magnificus

Seleucides melanoleuca auripennts
Drepanornis brutjnit

Cicinnurus regius similis
Diphyllodes magnificus chrysopterus
Paradisea m. minor

Paradisea m. pulchra

Archboldia p. papuensts
Chlamydera cerviniventris
Coracina papuensis melanolora
Lalage a. atrovirens

Crateroscelis robusta sanfordt
Pomatostomus i. isidort

Saxicola caprata belensts

Malurus alboscapulatus aida
Todopsis c. cyanocephala
Clytomyias insignis oortt
Megalurus timoriensis macrurus
Cisticola exilis diminuta
Sericornis s. spilodera

Sericornis n. nouhuyst x?
Sericornis perspicillatus

Sericornis papuensis biirgerst

Gerygone cinerea

Gerygone c. chrysogaster

Gerygone chloronota cineretceps

Gerygone magnirostris affints

Gerygone ruficollis insperata xt
Peltops montanus

Rhipidura t. threnothorax

Rhipidura r. rufidorsa #
Rhipidura a. albolimbata
Rhipidura rufiventris gularts
Rhipidura leucophrys melaleuca
Monarcha alecto chalybeocephalus

i <a es es a

SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

ft ee

x x
t #
Ke
x
#?
if
x
it
x?
x? x
x
it
x?
x
fo)
#
x
x it
x
x
t # it
x
mee Sie
x?
x?
xeex
x?
x
x?
it
x) x
x xX

it
t
t
#
N

oye
[J TFIMIAIM/JIJIAIS|/O[N|D

RANGE AND BREEDING SEASON

x = Central New Guinea,
i.e. Hollandia, Tami, Bodim,
Nassau, Baliem

# = Western New Guinea, Arar,
Misool, Waigeu

o = Batjan

Monarcha guttula

Monarcha chrysomela melanonotus
Monarcha t. telescopthalmus
Monarcha insularts
Machaerirhynchus n. saturatus
Microeca flavovirescens cuicut
Microeca papuana

Poecilodryas albonotata griseiventris
Peneothello sigillatus quadrimaculatus
Peneothello cyanus atricapilla
Pachycephala pectoralis balim
Pachycephala schlegelit viridipectus
Pachycephala lorentzt

Myiolestes megarhynchus misoliensis
Myiolestes megarhynchus hybridus
Pitohut kirhocephalus uropygialis
Pitohut kirhocephalus meyeri
Pitohut ferrugineus heurni
Nectarinea jugularis frenata
Timeliopsis g. griseigula
Glycichaera f. fallax

Myzomela e. eques

Myzomela e. primitiva

Myzomela r. rosenbergit
Toxorhamphus n. novae-guineae
Toxorhamphus 1. tliolophus
Melipotes fumigatus goliatht
Melidectes nouhuysi

Xanthotis chrysotis meyert
Xanthotis polygramma kuehni
Meliphaga aruensis sharpei
Meliphaga a. analoga

Ptiloprora perstriata lorentzi
Pycnopygius cinereus marmoratus
Philemon meyeri

Philemon n. novaeguineae
Philemon n. jobiensis

Dicaeum pectorale

Dicaeum geelvinkianum centrale
Melanocharis n. nigra
Melanocharis n. unicolor
Paramythia montium alpinum
Zosterops f. fuscicapilla

Lonchura tristissima calaminoros
Lonchura spectabilis mayri
Lonchura teerinki

Lonchura monticola

x?
x?

x?
x?
x?

D.¢

xX ff
KO
x
x
x
Keel Cox
x
x Px
> eS
x
x
x
Rex
x
x
x
xp vax
x
or
x
x
x
x? xP
x
x?
x

tt
t
t

es i osawvoh Tol LA |S Lo | N |p

ee ery ee an eT Oe aS ros aN" ED

LIST OF THE SPECIES

CASUARIIDAE, CAssOWARIES

Casuarius unappendiculatus philipr Rothschild

A fine adult of this species, the face and upper throat very blue, and with a high
casque, was watched in damar forest at Bodim on July 28. The bird came quite silently
out onto a trail, its slightly rocking gait as the head remains still and the neck carries back
during each step, giving it an extremely dignified air. After perhaps three minutes pause
on the trail, it apparently heard something and bounded off into heavy rattan-shrouded
forest, as silently as a deer, only a faint crack er two marking its passing.

A chick perhaps eighteen inches high was purchased from Papuan villagers in July at
Holtekong. The bird is beginning to get black feathers interspersed among the brown
now in July a year later. Its color pattern corresponds exactly to that of a juvenile
taken by me in West New Guinea in 1938.

In the Ilaga, the Western Dani and Uhunduni people believe that the few heavy
wing quills of the mountain cassowary are breasts and that these birds suckle their
young. They believe that there are no males among cassowaries, the females are partheno-
genetic and produce eggs by copulating with a stick.

PODICIPEDIDAE, GREBES

Podiceps ruficollis tricolor (Gray)

A series of four specimens from Lake Sentani and the Baliem Valley seem identical
with a female taken in northern Celebes in October in breeding condition. Two October
males are similarly listed as having enlarged gonads. A single adult was solicitously pro-
tecting a brood of well-grown young on the lagoon lake at Mosso, July 2.

Wing ¢ 97, 97.5, 98, 9 96; soft parts: iris red, bill and feet blackish.

Podiceps novaehollandiae novaehollandiae (Stephens)

Rand (1942, p. 426) points out quite rightly that the Australian dabchick should be
kept specifically separate from the Papuan ruficollis as it apparently overlaps. A series of
four birds from Wamena and the Baliem River includes a juvenile specimen taken in
February just moulting into the first winter or first basic plumage. The stripes are
broken into isolated blackish feathers on the throat and sides of the neck. The crown
is dull brown and the sides of the lower neck are rufous.

Wing ¢ 101, 107, 2 100, juv. @ 100.5; weight 9 200, juv. ? 207 grams. Mayr in|

Hartert (1930, p. 112) records a male of the Little dabchick (tricolor) from Lake Sentani,
taken in September as weighing 165 g.

PELICANIDAE, PELICANS

Pelecanus conspicillatus Temminck

An Australian pelican was killed on the Maga River at an altitude of 6800 feet in
early August, 1959, as it perched in a very large casuarina tree. The photograph of the
bird taken by Mr. Larson was unequivocal. This is a first record for the highlands.

PHALACROCORACIDAE, CoRMORANTS, ANHINGAS

Phalacrocorax melanoleucos melanoleucos (Vieillot)

Two specimens from Poee on Lake Sentani were taken in September and October.

LIST OF THE SPECIES 13

A single bird was seen on the small lagoon lake at Mosso. The little pied cormorant
also occurs in the Baliem.

Wing 2 239, o 224.

Grand Valley Dani name, “waluem.”

Anhinga rufa papua Rand

A pair in non-breeding condition were taken at Poee in October. The bill of these birds
was given on the label as “orange,” the legs “gray.”

Wing ¢ 340, 2 330.

This species is shy, and specimens are hard to obtain. It is undoubtedly eagerly sought
for as food by the fishing people of the lake.

ARDEIDAE, Herons
Notophoyx novaehollandiae austera, subsp. nov.

Type: ¢ ad. YPM no. 40708, collected March 2, 1961, at Wamena, 5000 feet, Baliem
Valley, Netherlands New Guinea, by Jusup Khakiaj.

Dracnosis: from typical novaehollandiae of Australia this form differs by being notice-
ably darker in tone on the crown of the head, in the coloration of the neck plumes
especially on the lower neck and upper breast, on the flanks and thighs, and on the back
and rump. From nana Amadon (1942A) of New Caledonia this form differs by being
larger, as in novaehollandiae, and also of course darker.

MEASUREMENTs: wing 6 316 (worn), 324, 327, 328, 335, 340 (type), 2 320, 328, o 300,
$18 (worn), 327, 332, 334.

Remarks: birds collected in February and March tended to have worn primaries,
although this varies, as the type is in good condition. This series, all from the Baliem
Valley agrees with birds taken by the Archbold Expedition of 1938 in the American
Museum of Natural History collection in being noticeably dark. Birds from Papua and
the southeast coast are also darker than Australian birds although less noticeably so.
The large series taken by Khakiaj, however, demonstrates clearly that New Guinea birds
are darker than those of Australia.

Rance: New Guinea in the central mountains (Baliem Valley), the south and south-
east.

GENERIC Position: Bock (1956) has united Notophoyx with Ardea as he calls it a
dwarf Ardea resembling especially Ardea pacifica in color patterns and plumes. While
sympathetic to his attempt to point out the relationships of the heron family, I feel that
novaehollandiae is very dwarfish indeed for an Ardea and that proportionally also its
legs are rather short for that genus. It seems wiser to leave the species as monotypic for
the time being in the genus Notophoyx until some clearer anatomical evidence is forth-
coming that it is as close to Ardea as assumed.

Grand Valley Dani name, ‘“‘mugugo.”’

Hydranassa picata (Gould)

Two specimens, a male and female, were collected at Wamena in October and Novem-
ber, the first record for this lowland species in the Baliem Valley.

Wing 218, 2 220; culmen ¢ 59, 92 65.

Jusup, my assistant, has marked on the label that the local Grand Valley Dani name
for this species is ‘“‘wamena,” a curious coincidence as the nearby village has a similar
name. These small plumed herons might well be combined in Hydranassa as Bock (1956)
has suggested.

Egretta alba modesta (Gray)

A pair were secured at Poee and a male at Wamena. This was the commonest species
seen here and there in the lowlands wading in the large river shallows or on sand banks,
or near the lake shore. The Wamena bird is a new record for the Baliem Valley.

Wing ¢ 353, 374, 2 371. Iris orange yellow, bill yellow.

Grand Valley Dani name, “gut.”

14. SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

Egretta intermedia plumifera (Gould)

Taken at Wamena this is a new record for the species at this altitude in New Guinea.
March birds have long plumes.
Wing ¢ 291, 2 296, o 302, 303. Iris orange yellow, bill yellow.

Egretta garzetta nigripes (Temminck)

A male from Poee has a wing measurement of 269. This species was also seen oc-
casionally along the rivers.

Nycticorax caledonicus hilli Mathews

Adults were taken at Poee and in the Baliem Valley, a new altitude record for the
species in New Guinea. A juvenile example was secured November 16 on Misool, evi-
dently a bird of the preceding breeding season.

Wing ¢ 296, 2 296, o 277, 295; soft parts: juvenile iris, yellow, ocular skin yellowish
green, bill yellowish green, culmen and tomia black, feet yellowish green.

Zonerodius heliosylus (Lesson)

A female in non-breeding condition was shot on a small tree overlooking a small
swampy clearing at Bodim near the Tor River on July 27. I have seen this rare forest
bittern only twice in New Guinea, both times in trees overlooking very small streams or
forest pools. Soft parts: iris yellow, facial skin green, bill upper mandible black, lower
mandible grayish flesh, feet blackish green, tarsus distally black, basally yellowish green.

Dupetor flavicollis gouldi (Bonaparte)

An adult, an immature and a juvenile just out of the nest were taken. The immature
bird collected at Poee in October differs from the adult in being rather rusty brown on
the upper surface, the wings being a paler grayish bluish rather than the blackish tone of
the wings of the adult. The throat and neck feathers are heavily washed with dark brown
with rufous and brownish rather than blue-black spotting. There is an indistinct chestnut
brownish sub-ocular streak extending back to the ear coverts. The under surface is dull
mauvish gray-brown, the ends of the feathers of the abdomen being dark isabelline. The
thigh feathers are cinammon buff.

The nestling or post-nestling is very blackish on the upper surface and below brownish
black, the feathers of the chin, throat and abdomen being finely edged with pale brown.

Soft parts (including the nestling): iris yellow, bill black, lower mandible greenish-
brown, feet dark brown.

Wing ¢ 209, 2 (im.) 215.

THRESKIORNITHIDAE, IsiseEs
Threskiornis moluccus moluccus (Cuvier)

A male was shot while incubating two white eggs in the crown of a coconut palm at
Arar on Sele Strait on December 1. The bird had enlarged gonads. Unfortunately I did
not realize that this bird was actually incubating when I destroyed it, as the nest, while
distinguishable, was still of flimsy construction and appeared to me to be an incipient
rather than a real nest. No mate was seen during our stay of nearly a week at the nearby
village where we camped.

Soft parts: iris brown, bill black, facial skin and nape patches rosy pink, feet mauve,
joints black, tarsi pink.

Wing 375, bill (culmen) 171.

ANATIDAE, Ducks
Dendrocygna guttata Schlegel
A female taken at Poee in October was the only bird encountered. Wing 210.

Tadorna radjah radjah (Lesson)
Radjah Shelducks were present on the Tor River and on the Tami, usually seen in

LIST OF THE SPECIES 15

small parties of five or six, perhaps adults and well-grown young of the year. A female was
collected at Kabare on Waigeu in October; iris brown, bill and feet creamy white.
Wing 287.

Anas gibberifrons gracilis Buller

Apparently common along the Baliem River near Wamena and the adjacent streams
and lakes, the Gray Teal is apparently a breeding bird in the central highlands, as three
males and one female taken in October are indicated as having enlarged gonads. Two of
the males with enlarged gonads show heavy wear on the primaries, indicating that they
are perhaps about to go into moult, the eclipse or pre-basic plumage so far as is known
at present indistinguishable from the breeding plumage. An immature female was taken
in October in the prebasic or juvenal plumage, marked by dappled small spots uniformly
on the underparts.

Wing ¢ 200, 202, 207; 2 186 (im.) 193, 196 (2), o 197, 201, 203.

Grand Valley Dani name, “walo-walo.”

Anas superciliosa pelewensis Hartlaub and Finsch

Twelve males, five females and a number of birds of undetermined sex were taken on
the Baliem River. February, March, August, September and October birds are listed as
having enlarged gonads, an indication that nesting was in prospect. February specimens
are in moult. In addition three September and October birds show heavy wear on the
primaries and a third October specimen appears to have freshly moulted primaries which
have shorter projecting tips beyond the ends of the secondaries than in the rest of the
series.

Premerce zal (2), 255, 238, 239,241, 244 (2), 245,91 220).222, 0.228, 227.231,.233) 237,
238, 243.

Four immature birds were taken, all characterized by short wing measurements (under
220) and by having very broad buffy tips to the feathers of the abdomen. This would
appear to be part of a prebasic or juvenal plumage and rather easily recognizable in
museum skins, less so in live birds on the wing, although to the experienced eye such
young birds often have an appearance of youth in their demeanor and flight. These young
birds were taken in March and September. One young bird is extremely pale and washed
Out in appearance and heavily worn. A few darker feathers of the basic plumage are
appearing spottily on the under surface from breast to vent.

Another small February female is also very worn and the undertail coverts and
abdominal feathers are so fluffy as to indicate the downy quality of the juvenal. This bird
is in juvenal plumage, and here again the breast and abdominal feathers are distinctive.
The three types may be diagrammed as follows then in Anas superciliosa pelewensis
(breast feathers only):

ty
Ny,

all ya
rae
‘\

ui)

juvena} basic or first non-nupftial alternate or nuptial
Figure 2. Contour feathers from three specimens of the Australian Gray Duck, Anas superciliosa
pelewensis, showing juvenal, immature of the first year, and adult plumage.

16 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

An alternative feather pattern with a central V-shaped patch of buff is sketched as well.
This appears to be a first basic or non-nuptial plumage bird of unknown sex. It corre-
sponds to an eclipse bird of Kortright’s description of the Black Duck (1942), but our
North American Black Duck possesses this in the alternate or nuptial plumage, and the
eclipse or basic plumage is plain black with the buffy fringing edge as in the adult
alternate plumage of pelewensis.

This subspecies is much less broadly streaked and edged with buff than typical rogerst
of Australia. Perhaps in pelewensis there is a tendency for the plumage to become more
immaculate and less buffy with age and succeeding prealternate moults.

In connection with Amadon’s review of this species (1942B) it is of interest to record
that of two males from the Palau Archipelago, type locality of pelewensis, one has a
weight of 692.5 grams. Unfortunately the wings of both birds which measure 227, 228, are
badly worn (January, April).

Salvadorina waigeuensis Rothschild and Hartert

A female with ovaries granular in heavy wing moult was shot on the Ilaga River on
September 9 and two ducklings were taken, both of which died after one or two days of
efforts to keep them alive. The ducklings are dark, mousey-black color with white lores,
superocular streaks, subauricular streaks, and white underparts. There are two pairs of
white body spots and a white wing edging.

Soft parts of the ducklings are: iris brown, bill upper mandible blackish, nail and
lower mandible pinkish, feet olive brown, splotched with dull yellow. Weight 30 g. Our
adult female had the iris brown, bill upper mandible brownish orange, center of the
upper mandible brown, feet splotched dull brown and yellow. Weight 520 g.

The rest of our series of these birds was taken at Wamena and on the Baliem. Males
are listed as in breeding condition in February and March, and contra Delacour (1956),
all have white-barred tails.

One immature bird in prebasic or juvenal plumage shows traces of down feathers still
on the thighs and lower abdominal flanks. Even in this specimen the tail feathers are
barred and indeed the upper plumage except for being somewhat “foxed” or more
brownish blackish in tone is indistinguishable from the adult. However, round the face
and neck prebasic warm brown feathers are being replaced by a prebasic moult into the
first basic or first non-nuptial plumage of the adult. Until] far more is known of these
long-tailed birds it would seem unrealistic to submerge the genus Salvadorina.

Grand Valley Dani name, “kunuru.” Western Dani, “uuni;” Uhunduni, “lakkum.”

Aythya australis papuana, subsp. nov.

Type: ¢ ad. (YPM No. 40709), collected February 20, 1961 at Wamena, Baliem Valley,
Netherlands New Guinea by Jusup Khakiaj.

Dracnosis: from Australian australis, these birds differ by being darker, more chocolate
chestnut on the head and neck, and much darker brown on the lower abdomen, vent,
thighs and flanks. In size these populations are virtually the same, though there is an
indication of slightly larger measurements in australis australis. From extima (specimens
from Tana, New Hebrides and New Caledonia), this form differs by being larger and
much darker, the males being pronouncedly sexually dimorphic, in contrast to the small
tropical island population in which the male plumage has become dulled and diminished,
more like an eclipse plumage as in the tropical gray teals, gibberifrons, or the small
mallard of Hawaii, the “koloa,” wyvilliana.

MEASUREMENTS: wing 8 209-220 (214.8), 2 209, 212; tail ¢ 57-60.5 (59.1), 2 55 (worn),
60; culmen ¢ 44-45 (45.5), 2 41-44. Measurements of type: wing 212.5, tail 59, culmen 44.
Australian specimens in the American Museum and the Yale collections measure: wing
$ 215-221 (218.7), 2 212-216; tail 60-69 (64.2), 2 60-65; culmen ¢ 45-49 (47), 9 42-48.
Specimens of exlima from Tana (é, ?) wing 201, New Caledonia 2 195 (worn). Mayr’s
birds from the Banks Is. (1940, p. 7) measured: ¢ 6 193-211, Q 189-196.

Remarks: As Rand (1942, p. 431) noted, this breeding population of the New Guinea
highlands is darker, more blackish, than the Australian one. In addition, it is slightly

LIST OF THE SPECIES 17

smaller, and in breeding plumage, if anything, richer, more pleasing in chestnut tone,
approaching Madagascan innotata, but much more blackish than typical small A. nyroca
of the palearctic region. Aythya australis ledeboeri (Bartels and Franck) (1938) is identical
and synonymous with typical australis in size and color, and represents a small straggling
population of the Australian form of the White-eyed Pochard which extends into eastern
Java, the lesser Sunda Islands and occasionally to Celebes, probably reinforced from time
to time by vagrant Australian birds. The Netherlands New Guinea highlands, however,
seem to be the home of a small resident population extending from Lake Habbema and
the Baliem Valley west to the Wissell Lakes at altitudes of 5000 feet and above.

Birds are showing very worn scapulars in February and March. Our male type lacks
the white spot on the chin normally found in all males of the Ferruginous ducks.

ACCIPITRIDAE, Hawks

Aviceda subscristata waigeuensis Mayr

Two adult males and an immature male of this subspecies were taken at Kabare on
Waigeu Island in September, 1955. The character of unbarred greater underwing coverts
shows up clearly in these birds.

Henicopernis longicauda minimus Junge

A female (?) from Wasa, Misool, with a wing length of 331, confirms the small size of
this insular race on Misool, although as Gyldenstolpe points out (1955B) Batanta Island
birds are as large as those of mainland New Guinea. This specimen is below Junge’s
minimal measurements (1937) for males (338-340), and therefore is probably also a male.

Henicopernis longicauda longicauda (Garnot)
A male was taken August 18, 1963, in the Swart Valley. Wing 412. Swart Dani name,
“ligatlok.”

Haliastur indus girrenera (Vieillot)

Found by us from seashore to 7500 feet in the Ilaga, a new altitude record for this
species. I collected an immature male in very worn plumage commencing the moult
into adult plumage atop a huge casuarina in the Ilaga, September 2, 1960.

Western Dani name, “mokop.”

Accipiter novaehollandiae leucosomus (Sharpe)

Waigeu, 9 (= 6 ?) wing 210, 2 wing 250.

Holtekong, 2 (subad.) wing 246.

Baliem including Kurelu, 9 (= ¢) wing 216, 217, 992 243, 246.

The Waigeu Island birds are in the pale, more grayish coloration, while the Hol-
landia Bay and Baliem birds are in the slatey and chestnut underparts “etorques” color-
ation. There appears to be no altitudinal variation in size among our specimens. Only
females appear to have any pronounced barring on the tail and I am inclined to feel
that this is a character which disappears with age and succeeding moults.

The immature female taken at Holtekong in secondary scrub forest near cultivation
had the following soft parts: iris yellow, bill black, cere orange yellow, feet orange
yellow. Weight 439 grams.

A fledgling was taken in the Swart Valley in September.

Grand Valley Dani name, “pinté;” Swart Dani name, “penake.”

Accipiter poliocephalus Gray
A single female from Misool is our only specimen of this species. Wing 213; iris
brown, bill black, feet reddish.

Accipiter melanochlamys (Salvadori)
‘Two specimens, an adult female and an immature male, appear to bring to twenty-

18 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

three the total number of specimens now known of this rare species. Some twelve speci-
mens have been in the American Museum collection in New York, five specimens in
other museums abroad, and in the past twelve years two more have been added to the
British Museum, two to the Royal Natural History Museum in Stockholm and these
two at Yale.

Our adult female of this species from the Ilaga matches so well the description of
typical melanochlamys that I am inclined to agree with Gyldenstolpe (1955A) on the
questionability of accepting the race schistacinus Rothschild and Hartert. This female
is dark glossy black above and deep rufous below and on the nape, matching the
description of the Arfak type.

Our two specimens were taken in open cultivation and on the forest edge at 7500 and
8000 feet and measure as follows;

wing (mm) tail (mm) culmen (mm) weight (g)
2 256 192 20 9
im. 6 221 165 17 225

Soft parts: iris orange (2), yellow (4), eyelid yellow, bill (2) black, base and lower
mandible gray, cere orange yellow; (é) bill upper mandible black, base and lower
mandible gray, cere yellow, feet (2) orange yellow, (¢) yellow.

Western Dani name, “Nabataranum.”

The young male was hawking quietly through casuarinas and gardens, causing alarm
among weavers and swamp warblers. His plumage is blackish on the head, the white
bases and narrow margins showing through; an indistinct reddish sub-basal barring in
the nape feathers, the back dark brown, paler on the tail with dark brown bars, below
whitish (the thighs sandy brown with brown spots), one or two streaklets of black on the

lower throat, the breast and abdomen strikingly dappled with black pear-shaped terminal
droplets.

Accipiter cirrhocephalus papuanus (Rothschild and Hartert)

A male (?) was taken in the Baliem in November in subadult plumage. The wing
measurement is 206 which seems large for a male.

Harpyopsis novaeguineae Salvadori

A male with unenlarged gonads was taken at Poee near Hollandia on October 9, 1960.
Wing 416, tail 368, culmen 48. Iris and legs orange, bill blackish, tip horn.

FALCONIDAE, FALcons

Ieracidea berigora novaeguineae Meyer

Several specimens were taken in open country in the Ilaga, Swart and the Baliem.
Males ranged in wing measurement size from 323-339 and females from 354-369. Specimens
in very worn plumage were taken from August through October. One male weighed 489
grams.

A slow, sluggish falcon addicted to open edges of forest, cultivation and scrub. Swart
Dani name, “ketek-ketek.”

MEGAPODIIDAE, MEGAPopES

Megapodius freycinet freycinet Gaimard

Specimens of the small blackish form were taken on Waigeu and Misool as well as
at Arar, a small village on an islet a hundred yards from the New Guinea mainland in
Sele Strait between New Guinea and Salawati. Megapodes were in breeding condition
and calling in October, and just going out of the breeding state in December. I watched
a pair of this subspecies working through the forest floor, scratching for insects under the
leaves like domestic fowl, keeping up a constant running commentary of small clucks and
chuckles. Chicks were collected on Misool in the early part of the year in early January

LIST OF THE SPECIES 19

indicating that they had hatched from eggs laid in October or November. A well-grown
young bird in adult plumage was taken on Waigeu in September, presumably nearly a
year old. Adults had soft parts: iris brown, facial skin dull red, bill blackish olive, tip
olive, feet dark greenish olive. One female in breeding condition had the tip of the bill
colored yellowish horn.

Megapodius freycinet affinis Meyer

A pair were taken on the Tami River and at Poee on Lake Sentani. The female taken
in October is indicated as in breeding condition.

Wing ¢@ 227, 2 222. Soft parts: iris brown, bill olive brown, facial skin dull red,
legs black.

Megapodius wallacei Gray

As I reported previously (1960) we discovered Wallace’s Megapode on Misool Island
for the first record of this little-known species in the Papuan area. In identical size and
proportion this species resembles Megapodius so closely that only the brighter banding on
the wings and back, and white undertail coverts separate it from the other megapodes.
It seems that these characters are too slight to require generic separation which has con-
tinued to date largely because no taxonomist has reviewed the status of this rare species.
Our specimens, both males with slightly enlarged gonads, were taken at 300 and nearly
1000 feet above sea level. Soft parts: iris light brown, bill dull yellow, cere and base of
lower mandible dark olive, feet blackish olive, legs anteriorly olive-black, posteriorly
yellowish olive.

Talegalla cuvieri Lesson

Common in lowland forest at 300 feet above sea level on Misool. One female had
granular ovaries in November. Soft parts: iris yellow, facial skin yellowish green, bill dull
orange, feet yellowish orange. These birds fly heavily into trees when disturbed on the
ground, at which time the bill and feet are noticeably bright in color. Bergman (1963)
has made interesting observations on the young of this species.

Talegalla jobiensis jobiensis Meyer

Two females, one with ovaries granular were taken near Hollandia, the latter in late
September. Two young, one just out of the egg, the other several weeks old, were taken
on July 1 and July 29, the latter at Bodim on the upper Tor River east of Sarmi. Soft
parts of adults: iris pale brown, facial skin reddish brown, bill upper mandible horny
brown, lower pinkish horn, feet deep orange, nails orange whitish. Chicks, iris brown,
(six-week old) dark brown, bill upper mandible brown, lower light brown, (six-week old)
dark brown, feet brownish orange (six-week old) orange. Weight: chick 125 g, (six-week
old) 292 g.

Of the two adults, the female from the Tami River has a wing measurement of 291
longer than typical jobiensis as given by Mayr (1938) and approaching longicauda. It is
worth noting also that the nape feathers of this bird are chocolate brown rather than
black.

This species was common on the Tami River in heavy evergreen forest. Its call
“wankh-wankh” in an ascending scale, was frequent morning and evening, and presum-
ably more common as egg laying was in progress. Several nest mounds were investigated,
huge mounds of humus ranging from three to twelve feet in diameter, normally made
by a single male and female, in one case a trio, rather than the more communal affairs
of the megapodes. One egg removed from a nest on June 30 cracked open in my pocket
and proved to contain a chick almost ready to hatch. The temperature of these nest
mounds ranged from 89°-97° F. in the daylight hours. Many mounds had numerous holes
in them said to be made by Varanus, the local monitor lizard, called “‘soa soa” in Malay.
A roosting place of bush turkeys was found at Bodim. It was about 25 feet up in a large
forest tree and the ground below was heavily littered with reddish droppings.

The embryos collected by us have been reported on by G. A. Clark (in press).

290 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

The following is quoted from a Mamberano report by Mr. van Eechoud ca. 1947:

“The above photograph [see Plate II, p. 87] shows Sirikenas at the Moasets bivouac
(560 meters above sea-level) with eggs of two kinds of large-leg hens (Megapodiidae). In
this country said hens are sometimes called New Guinea forest turkeys. Presumably the
hens belong to the Talegalla species, [Talegalla jobiensis and Megapodius freycinet].

On the photograph one can see clearly two kinds of eggs. This is because they are
produced by two kinds of hens. The observer has not yet been able to investigate the
difference in exterior, but there is a difference in sound as regards the way of calling or
quacking. The sounds resembles “ngaak.” The species producing white eggs does. not
occur in the lowlands. It lives in hilly territory and in the mountains. The species pro-
ducing brown eggs is often found in the lowlands and up to heights of 500-600 m.

The manner in which the eggs are laid differs too. The white-egg producing hen lays
her eggs in layers in the nest-heap (I wonder if nesthoop should be mesthoop which
means dung-hill; compost-heap; tr.) Each layer is covered with humus and earth. The
bottom layers are the oldest eggs and often rot.

The brown-ege producing kind is valued higher than the other kind by the popula-
tion because when finding its nest one can collect a large number of eggs at once.
Contrary to the brown-egg producing kind one should not leave any traces when ap-
proaching the nest of the white-egg producing hen; broken twigs, etc., around the nest
make the bird shy and it leaves the spot, which is a disadvantage for the collectors of
eggs. If no traces have been left one can very well visit such a nest regularly, for the
bird lays an egg every day when once started. The brown-egg producing bird does not
do this. Besides it is quite alright to cover the nest carelessly after the egg has been dug
out.

If these birds occur in the vicinity of bivouacs or forest huts they are not killed or
hunted by the population since the eggs bring in more than the meat.”

Aepypodius arfakianus misoliensis Ripley

I have already recorded the existence of this large Bush Turkey on Misool Island
(1957). This is a smaller form with slimmer bill than that found on the mainland of
New Guinea in the mountains. Our specimens were taken by trappers at an altitude of
1000 feet, and the species is apparently exceedingly rare, which explains why naturalists
have not run across specimens previously. Soft parts: iris tan, skin of loral, superciliary
and auricular areas greenish-yellow, crown and malar region greenish blue, submalar
stripe light purple, neck wattle bluish white (once 9, greenish), caruncle pinkish white,
bill upper mandible olive horn, lower mandible creamy horn, feet dull yellowish-olive
posteriorly, brownish olive anteriorly.

Arafura name, “gnok.” Western Dani name, “alonga.”

Although the Danis know the bush turkey, the Ilaga Valley was too high for it. Dani
hunters reported it as occurring lower in the upper Rouffaer area.

PHASIANIDAE, Quai.

Anurophasis monorthonyx van Oort

A single specimen was collected for us on the Kemabu plateau west of the Ilaga ap-
proaching the Carstenz peaks. This plateau is uninhabited and lies at about 12,000 feet.
Small parties of these giant quail occur in the Nassau range on the plateau which must
be traversed by the Danis to reach Homejo to the west or Pyramid and the Baliem on
the east. The Western Danis occasionally manage to secure specimens of the “gimaabut”
as they call the New Guinea alpine quail by shooting them with arrows. They find the
birds a difficult quarry as they flush from close at hand with the characteristic burst of
sound which so often puts a hunter off his guard.

o = 2 Wing 158, tail 65, culmen 19.5, tarsus 43.

Bill yellow-green, feet straw yellow.

Except for the type in Leyden and the Archbold Expedition series in New York, this

LIST OF THE SPECIES 21

is the only other specimen of this quail in museum collections and extends the range of
the species west of the Oranje Mountains to the Nassau Mountains.
The carcass of this specimen is preserved in the Peabody Museum alcohol collection.

Coturnix chinensis novaeguineae (Rand)

Common in the Baliem, at Bokindini, and in the Ilaga, this diminutive quail can be
flushed in the grassy meadows near cultivation and along the edges of the airstrips
maintained by government officials and the missionary organizations. Males from the
Ilaga seem very slightly darker above and more richly chestnut on the lower underparts
than do topotypical novaeguineae specimens from the Baliem. Gyldenstolpe (1955 A, p.
31) refers to a single Wissel Lakes specimen taken by S. Bergman as also being rather
darker than Wahgi Valley novaeguineae. Perhaps there is a slight cline in shades of color
from east to west along the mountains in this species. Our series measures;

Wing
Baliem ¢ ¢ 62, 63, 67
Bokindini ¢ 65
Ilaga $6 65, 67

Iris brown, bill black, (one female, dark brown), feet orange yellow (male in breeding
condition), yellowish-brown (males in non-breeding condition), yellow or dull brownish-
yellow (females). Weight ¢ 39, 992 38, 43, 46 g.

Our male was in breeding condition September 12 and a female taken the same day
had “ovaries granular.” A chick was taken July 2 in the Baliem. Western Dani,
“gimaaput,” or “gila.”” Uhunduni name, “me wingam.”

RALLIDAE, Rais
Rallus pectoralis captus Mayr and Gilliard

We failed to see this species, all specimens of which were brought in to us by Danis
or Uhundunis. A male had enlarged gonads August 20. Two immature birds were brought
in in juvenal plumage, dark brown above, the head blackish, the back with indistinct
blackish streaks, below similar to the adult but with no barring on the belly and no
chestnut wash on the breast. The wings and flanks are barred as in the adult but the pale
bars are creamy rather than whitish. There is an ill-defined isabelline wash on the
undertail coverts.

Wing Culmen
é 6 106, 107 345 30
Le Soe EE be UE: 20) 552, 1 oes

I place these birds with captus Mayr and Gilliard (1951) with which they agree in
being fairly large and dark. The single “female” from the Bele River taken by Rand
and recorded by Mayr and Gilliard (op. cit. p. 2), is in fact a male, and I measure wing 97
instead of “96,” culmen 37 instead of “33.” The race connectens Junge from the Wissel
Lakes seems to me to be a clinal intermediate, closely approaching mayri from the
Vogelkop with which I would suggest it be synonymized.

Rallus philippensis wahgiensis Mayr and Gilliard

Junge (1953) has written extensively about the variations in this species. ‘Three
specimens collected by us at Bokindini in the area of the western Baliem and a fourth
from the upper Rouffaer river are close to australis from Australia but darker, the
chest band especially richer in tone. The feathers of the crown and back are more
blackish as are the feathers of the lower underparts.

In color these birds are like wahgiensis Mayr and Gilliard and quite unlike their
randi, also described in 1951. This is interesting in view of the position of randi northeast
of Mount Wilhelmina and in the Lake Habbema area which is much nearer the range

e2 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

of our Bokindini birds (within thirty nautical miles as the crow flies). However, randi
was collected at 3225-3400 meters whereas Bokindini lies at 4200 feet or approximately
1300 meters. The paler randi with longer tarsus appears to represent an altitudinal
race from the highest altitude in which the species has as yet been taken in New Guinea.
The race wahgiensis appears to inhabit the mid-mountain altitudes from the Wahgi
Valley in the Territory of New Guinea at about 5000 feet up to about 8000 feet, (although
Gyldenstolpe (1955A, p. 33) notes that his higher altitude specimens show some vari-
ability) west to the western Baliem in the Bokindini area, and the upper Rouffaer River
(Swart Valley) .

Our birds at Bokindini were a common feature of the missionary gardens and the
bushes, low grass and rivulets along the edges of the airstrip.

Western Dani name, “kumu.” Swart Dani name, “jowan.’”’ Bokindini name, “iluwe.”

Measurements: wing ¢ 135.5, 9 138.5, 144; culmen 6 28, 2 29.5, 32.

Porzana tabuensis edwardi Gyldenstolpe

A series from the Ilaga Valley fits Gyldenstolpe’s description (1955A) of edwardi
from the Wahgi Valley by being somewhat darker than typical tabuensis and thus defi-
nitely darker than richardsoni. The bills of our series are shorter than edwardi but
definitely longer than the short-billed richardsoni, and thus nearer edwardi.

Measurements:
culmen

richardsoni (Rand’s

measurements, 1940) 16-17
edwardt (Ilaga) 17-19.5 (mean 18.34)
edwardi (Gyldenstolpe’s

measurements, 1955 A) 17-22 (mean 19.02)
edwardi (Sims, 1956) 18-19
tabuensts (S. Pacific) 18-21.5

A number of subadult birds were taken in mid-August, the youngest of which is in
dull juvenal plumage, the crown and back rusty brown, the throat whitish and under-
parts light grey splotched on the abdomen with paler gray. The legs are notably dull,
dark brown rather than bright orange red. The rest of the younger birds are indistinguish-
able from the adults except for dull-colored legs and slightly shorter wings and bills.

Weights: ad. 6 6 50, 52, ad. 99 45-51, juv. 62 44-55 g.

This species occurred in the same marshy rank meadows as pectoralis, normally over-
grown with rank grass or vines.

Swart Dani name, “kumalowanggwe.”

Poliolimnas cinereus minimus (Schlegel)

A single male (wing 91.5) with slightly enlarged gonads was taken July 2 in a marshy
lake near Mosso on the Tami River. These little rails flutter almost as agily over lily
pads as do the lily-trotters themselves. We noted them running rather freely over the
vegetation of the lake in mid-morning. Soft parts: iris brown, eyelid red, bill olive horn,
base reddish brown, feet yellowish green. Weight 60 g. Papuan name locally, ‘“‘chincrauchi.”

Rallicula rubra subrubra Rand

Three males mostly lacking the blackish wing patterns of the coverts, were brought
in by Uhunduni trappers in the Ilaga, altitude 8000-10,700 feet. One male is in partial
immature plumage with palish brown lower abdomen and vent lightly banded with buff
and with an irregular sprinkling of white-streaked, blackish feathers on the wing coverts.

Measurements: 64, wing 95 (2), 96; culmen 27 (3). Weight, 84, 88, 91 g.

Rallina tricolor tricolor Gray

A series of this handsome rail was taken on Misool Island in November as well as on
the Tor River at Bodim. These are birds of heavy undergrowth, found in sago swamps

LIST OF THE SPECIES 23

as well as in wet places on the forest floor. Measurements: wing 6 ¢ 147-156, 2 2 143-151;
weight 66 169 (August) 214, 231; 29 194, 200.

A subadult bird was collected by Khakiaj on Misool in October. It is lighter colored
above and below than adults, the head with brown bases to the feathers which show
through to give a nearly barred effect, the underparts, the throat and belly especially,
much paler, the latter with pale creamy bars. The entire throat is cream colored, the
newer feathers having brownish tips.

Gymnocrex plumbeiventris plumbeiventris (Gray)

This skulking and elusive rail of deep marshy forest has not been collected on Misool
where we secured a pair, since the type of the species was taken by Wallace’s assistant,
Allen, over a hundred years ago. The female was in breeding condition with oviduct eggs
on November 15, the male taken five days later, is in more worn plumage and has the
paler, chestnut-tipped throat mentioned by Sharpe (1894) in some museum specimens.

The resemblance of this species to Aramides of Central and South America is striking.
The underwing coverts and axillaries are more brightly barred with white tips to the
slaty feathers. This is presumably a warning pattern as these rails are pugnacious and
threaten each other with wings held in a raised position.

Soft parts: iris light brown, eyelid (¢) orange red, (@) dull red, bill brownish olive,
base of culmen, tomia and base of lower mandible greenish yellow or chartreuse color,
feet and legs pinkish red. Altitude 300 feet above sea level. Wing 4 189, 2 188; culmen
SO, 2 48: tail (o) Fi® 71.5; tarsus, 6 57.9 D8.

Local Arafura (the people call themselves Bat Bat) name, “hoo,” presumably an
onomatopoeic attempt at one of the call notes of the bird.

Megacrex inepta pallida Rand

A single female of this stout-limbed rail, so large and powerful it appears in life
like a miniature cassowary, was taken at Holtekong, across the bay to the east from
Hollandia, the site where the two other specimens were taken by an Indonesian collector
working for Mayr in August, 1928 (Hartert, 1930; Rand, 1938).

Measurements: wing 185, culmen (including shield) 79, tarsus 94. Soft parts: iris red-
dish brown, bill chartreuse, frontal shield blackish olive, feet dark brown, orange
splotches on the upper leg, posterior base of nails white. Along the interior ramus of the
maxilla from the internal nares to a point 23 mm from the tip is a narrow open suture-
like channel brownish-black in color with several pink polyp-like structure, perhaps
accessory sensory organs. The rest of the inner surface of the maxilla is bluish-gray. The
tongue is horny and over one inch long.

This species which closely resembles a giant rufous-tailed moorhen, was apparently
not uncommon in the mangrove forest which stretches south from Holtekong towards
the Tami River. The mangroves here are large, up to sixty feet high, forming a dense
canopy interspersed with palms, pandanus, casuarinas (often of immense size along the
beach edges) and hardwoods. The “ferek’’ as one of its local Papuan names describes it,
is found in the mangroves and perches at night several feet (usually above two feet) off
the ground on tree branches. The rail has a harsh but shrill call, “aaah-aaah,” not unlike
the squealing of a baby pig. It is quite capable of taking care of itself even though flightless,
being most powerful, kicking and stabbing sufficiently to frighten off the average dog
and allow it to escape into the surrounding brush or up into the trees from branch
to branch like a cat.

Amaurornis olivaceus frankii (Schlegel)

The rufous-tailed moorhen is a shy creature found in heavy stands of grass and reeds
interspersed with bushes or banana stands near streams. Pairs usually have a perch in
the bushes or banana clumps for the night and may often be trapped in this way. A fe-
male from Batjan with granular ovaries September 30, was taken in this manner. At
Holtekong a pair lived in the long grass near our tent from which they called at dawn,
a drawn-out mew like a cat in pain, “wee-youuu.” The Holtekong male is much darker,

24 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

more slaty below and darker above than the Batjan female and inclines me to agree with
Rand (1942) that frankii should be used to discriminate the north New Guinea popula-
tion.

Indonesian name, “ayam ayamare,” Papuan name (Hollandia), “namangié.”

Measurements:
middle toe
wing culmen tarsus (with claw)
Batjan 9 136 29 51 54
Holtekong &@ 129 31 53 59

Soft parts: iris brown, bill (4) yellowish green, culmen olive brown, (?) green, culmen
olive brown, shield light brown, feet (4) yellowish brown, (2) brownish yellow. Weight
$ 182 g, 2 205 ¢g.

Porphyrio poliocephalus melanotus ‘Temminck

Three males, a female and three sex undetermined were collected by Khakiaj in the
Baliem in February and March, 1961. One March male is labelled as being in breeding
condition, thus agreeing with Rand’s observation (1942). One male has pale fluffy feathers
on the lower abdomen and vent indicating that it is subadult.

Wing $ 6 246-258, 9 235, o 253-259. These birds are larger than melanopterus which
occurs on the Idenburg River at low altitudes. It appears then that Australian melanotus
is found in the mountains west to the Wissel Lakes (Junge, 1953) and Aimaroe Lake in
the Vogelkop (Gyldenstolpe, 1955 B). These measurements range in the males from
246-275, and in females from 235-257. Rand (1942, p. 438) gives measurements of birds.
from Bernhard Camp on the Idenburg at 50 meters altitude above sea level as: 6 6
231-238, 992 221-230. These measurements agree with birds from the Moluccas and
Ceram (type locality of melanopterus). Australian melanotus has a wing range from
265-281. There appears to be no other significant difference than size as Mayr (1938) has.
already pointed out. This is an unsatisfactory position but there is no real overlap in
measurements.

JACANIDAE, JAcanas
Irediparra gallinacea novae-guineae (Ramsay)

An adult female and a subadult with brown head were taken. This lily-trotter or
jacana was found on the small lake near Mosso on the Tami River.

Wing 2 132.5. Soft parts: iris light yellow, eyelid light blue, bill basally yellowish
white, distally black, frontal shield pinkish yellow, feet and legs blue. The subadult (per-
haps also a female) had: iris puce, bill, upper mandible flesh-color, lower basally white,
distally fleshy-horn, feet bluish gray. Weight: subadult 110, @ 130 grams. Well-grown
young indicated that there had been a nesting season within the previous two months.

CHARADRIIDAE, PLOvErRs
Pluvialis dominica fulva (Gmelin)
Golden plover in winter plumage were taken along the Baliem River in October.

Charadrius leschenaultit leschenaultii Lesson
Collected on Waigeu Island by Khakiaj in September and October.

SCOLOPACIDAE, Cur.ews, SNIPE
Numentus phaeopus variegatus (Scopoli)

A pair were taken at Fafanlap on Misool in November, from whence this migrant
curlew has not previously been recorded.

LIST OF THE SPECIES 25

Tringa hypoleucos (Linnaeus)

Taken on Waigeu, Misool, the Schildpad Islands at Poee on Lake Sentani and in the
Baliem Valley from whence two February females are given weight measurements of 50
grams each.

Capella megala (Swinhoe)
Snipe were collected on Waigeu and one specimen comes from the Baliem in March.

Scolopax saturata rosenbergii Schlegel

Two specimens of the woodcock were taken in the Ilaga Valley at 8000-9000 feet.
Both were brought in by hunters from heavy forest.

Measurements: 2 wing 158, tail 64, culmen 98; weight 220 grams. The second speci-
men, sex undetermined, appears to be subadult, being smaller, the barring on the upper-
parts being heavier, more rufescent, the black areas of the feathers of the hind neck, nape
and wing coverts of the adult being undefined, and the underparts being uniformly
barred without the pale patch on the breast. Soft parts: iris brown, bill dark brown,
feet grayish brown,

Dani name, “ibo.”

PHALAROPODIDAE, PHALAROPES
Phalaropus lobatus (Linnaeus)
A single specimen was collected off Waigeu Island by Khakiaj.

LARIDAE, GuLLs, TERNS
Chlidonias hybrida fluviatilis (Gould)

A series of whiskered terns was collected at Poee on Lake Sentani in October. Some
birds appear to be in first winter plumage with only an indication of black on the
feathers of the hind crown and nape. Still other birds are in full adult breeding plumage
while a third category appears to be changing into winter plumage.

These terns were commonly seen wheeling over the lake especially at the southeastern
end.

Wing ¢ ¢ 218-230, 2 2 213-230. Soft parts: iris brown, bill red, feet dull red; immature
differs by having the bill black.

Gelochelidon nilotica affinis (Horsfield)

Three Gull-billed Terns from Poee on Lake Sentani prove to belong to the smal]
form of the Sunda Islands and the Moluccas. This is a new record for this subspecies in
New Guinea. A male and two females measure: wing ¢ 257, 2 255, 270, culmen ¢ 36,
33, 34. Two of the birds are beginning to lose the black caps of the breeding plumage.
Soft parts: iris brown, bill black, feet black in the individual in breeding plumage, pale
pinkish red in the two individuals assuming winter plumage.

These terns were associated with the smaller Whiskered Terns in mixed flocks on the
lake.

Sterna sumatrana sumatrana Raffles

Found perched on rocky coral islets in Hollandia Bay in July. These birds pre-
sumably breed here as two females were in breeding condition though no eggs were
seen on the dropping-covered rocks.

Sterna bergii cristatus (Stephens)

Crested Terns were common along the outer reefs along the north coast. No evidence
of nesting was observed. Soft parts: ¢, iris dark brown, bill yellow, tip black, feet black.

26 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

COLUMBIDAE, PIcEons

Ptilinopus superbus superbus (Temminck)

Females with somewhat enlarged ovaries were taken in September, near Hollandia
and at heights ranging from sea level to some 4500 feet above sea level near Swart on
the Konda River. The following weights were recorded: immature 9, 88 g (July), 29,
ovaries granular or somewhat enlarged 120, 125 g.

Ptilinopus pulchellus pulchellus (Temminck)

Found from sea level to 300 feet altitude in light scrub as well as heavy forest, this
seems to be a common species on Misool as well as along the northern coast of New
Guinea. Wing ¢ é 103-108. Soft parts: iris yellow, ocular skin yellow, bill yellow, feet
purplish red. Weight 6 ¢ 65, 81 g.

Ptilinopus pulchellus decorus Madardsz

This subspecies has more pronounced pale edgings to the breast feathers to create a
dappled effect of grayish white on the bluish gray breast. The undertail coverts appear
paler, more yellowish. Otherwise this is a rather poorly marked subspecies. Wing ¢ ¢
101-103. Weight ¢ 4 66, 67, 69, 70, 83 g.

A female was on a nest at Bodim in early August. The nest was fastened on the flat
frond of a palm (Licuala sp.) and was loosely made of small twigs which were perilously
attached to the palm frond by the surface roughness made by patches of moss and lichen
growing on the frond. There was a single white egg.

Ptilinopus coronulatus trigeminus Salvadori

A pair were taken at Arar on Sele Strait in December. The female was coming into
breeding condition as was the male. Wing ¢ 106, 2 105. Soft parts: iris orange yellow,
eyelid yellow, bill yellowish green, feet purplish red. Weight ¢ 76, 2 71 g.

Ptilinopus coronulatus quadrigeminus Meyer

A poorly differentiated form. The throat of some of our specimens is very yellow. The
purple stripe is present in virtually all of our specimens, and the brightness and extent
of the yellow on the abdomen seem very variable. Lacking specimens of geminus, I am
unable to compare the forms, but our series would cast doubt on the separate status of
quadrigeminus.

Wing 64 103-106, 292 102-106; weight ¢ 4 75, 78; 2 81 g (breeding).

A female was in breeding condition at Bodim, August 8, while birds from Holtekong
were going out of breeding condition and into moult.

Ptilinopus tozonus humeralis Wallace

A male from Arar in Sele Strait is coming into breeding condition in December.
Wing 120. Iris white, bill greenish yellow, cere pinkish red, feet purplish red. Weight
132 g.

Ptilinopus tozonus jobiensis Schlegel

Three females were taken at Holtekong and Bodim. The Holtekong birds taken July
7 have slightly enlarged ovaries. The iris is yellow in these birds, bill olive green, nail
greenish yellow, feet purple to purplish red. Weight 29 98, 100, 110 g.

Ptilinopus rivoli bellus Sclater

A male in breeding condition was taken August 10 on the upper plateau west of the
Ilaga at 10,700 feet above sea level, slightly above the highest altitude recorded by
Rand (1942) of 3225 m. This was unfortunately the only specimen secured. Wing 139.
Western Dani name, “puume.”

LIST OF DHE SPECIES 27

Ptilinopus viridis pectoralis (Wagler)
Common on Misool in heavy cut-over forest in the coastal areas. A female weighed
94 g.

Ptilinopus viridis salvador Rothschild
A male with gonads enlarged was taken at Bodim August 5. Iris, outer ring red,
inner ring yellow, bill yellow, feet red.

Ptilinopus nanus minimus Stresemann and Paludan

Two males from Misool were taken in a very large fruiting tree. Wing 80.5, 81. Soft
parts: iris inner ring gray, outer ring whitish, eyelid light bluish green, bill yellow, tip
greenish; feet dull purple. Weight 46 g (2).

Ptilinopus aurantiifrons Gray

A male from Holtekong was in breeding condition July 6. Wing 132. Iris orange,
eyelid yellow, bill yellow, cere red, feet purplish red. Weight 140 g. This beautiful
pigeon was in a casuarina tree just at the beach edge.

Ptilinopus perlatus plumbeicollis A. B. Meyer
Two males and one sex undetermined were collected at Poee on Lake Sentani. Soft
parts: iris red, feet red.

Megaloprepia magnifica puella Lesson
Found on Waigeu and Misool in January, February and September. Wing ¢ 158,
161, 166, 2 161.

Megaloprepia magnifica septentrionalis Meyer

This north New Guinea race has a brighter, clearer gray head, more yellowish wing
spots and slightly duller, more olive-yellowish undertail coverts than is the case with
specimens of puella. Birds from the Tami River were moulting in late June. Some en-
largement of gonads was noted in July at Holtekong and Bodim. The Holtekong bird
with slightly enlarged gonads (regressing?) is in very worn plumage, whereas the Bodim
bird, July 29, is in fresh plumage and may be coming into breeding condition. An
October female from Poee is immature, with greenish gray crown, and only traces of
yellow wing spots. The lower breast is incompletely red, patched with blackish brown.

Wing 6 152-165, 2 152-167; weights $ 185, 195, 205 g, Q 152 g.

Ducula myristictvora myristicivora (Scopoli)

A breeding male was taken at Arar in Sele Strait just off mainland New Guinea on
December 1. Wing 258. The growling call of these birds echoed throughout the tall
mangroves and coconut palms.

Ducula bicolor (Scopoli)
A female was taken on Kamoa, Schildpad Is., north of Misool. This species was in
breeding condtion on Batjan and Halmahera in September and October.

Ducula pinon pinon (Quoy and Gaimard)
Three birds from Waigeu Island measure: wing ¢ 262, 273, 0 269. This form is
duller colored than jobiensis and lacks the bluish gray wing edgings of the latter.

Ducula pinon jobiensis (Schlegel)

Common near the coast and also at Bodim though usually in very tall trees.

Soft parts: iris, inner ring orange, outer red, ocular skin red, bill basally black, (¢)
dark gray, distally gray or (é) light gray, feet cherry red, pads dull yellow. Wing $
263-275, 2 273, 275.

28 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

Ducula rufigaster rufigaster (Quoy and Gaimard)

A female from Misool and a juvenile from Waigeu were taken in November and
September 20 respectively. Soft parts: iris red, ocular skin red, bill black; feet cherry red.
The juvenile is similar to the adult in color but small with a short tail. Ducula basilica
of Batjan and the north Moluccas seems to me to be a rather different bird although it
has been placed in the same species by such recent authors as van Bemmel (1948). It is a
highland bird not found below 2500 feet, much larger and rather different in appearance.
The head, neck and breast are cream-colored rather than dark vinous buff, although
the nape has a similar gray patch. The primaries and the wing coverts along the bend of
the wing are rich purplish blue. The whole upper surface is green, not shading to a
purplish-bronzey rump and upper tail coverts and the tail has greenish tips beyond the
wide gray band, which is much wider in itself than the terminal band of rufigaster.
I would call these birds members of a superspecies rather than races of a species.

Ducula rufigaster uropygialis Stresemann and Paludan

Found on the Tami River, Hollandia Bay and at Bodim, usually singly in the forest.
One female weighed 422 g.

Ducula zoeae (Lesson)

At Holtekong and on Lake Sentani these birds were common in tall trees. Three
females measure: wing, 210-219.

Gymnophaps albertisti albertisii Salvadori

A female with granular ovaries was taken September 6 in the Ilaga; wing 202. Iris
red, ocular skin bright red; bill upper mandible grayish white, lower mandible tipped
with pinkish horn; cere pinkish red; feet cherry. Weight 245 g. Call, a soft cooing note,
“kum kum” in the large subspecies exsul from Batjan. In the latter form the iris of an
October male in breeding condition is: outer ring blue, inner ring orange; the bill upper
mandible basally purplish red, distally pale horn, lower mandible gray, tipped with
pinkish horn. Evidently the nasal area of the bill of a breeding male becomes brighter,
more richly colored, and there may be a change in the iris color (?). Dani name, “juk;”
Uhunduni, “mamoritum.”

Columba vitiensis halmaheira (Bonaparte)

A male found at 9000 feet in the Haga belies Rand’s statement (1942, p. 443) that this
species has a small altitudinal range. Another male was taken in the Baliem at 5000 feet
and a young bird in the Swart at 4500 feet. Soft parts: iris orange, ocular skin and cere
red, bill basally red, distally white, feet cherry red. Wing 226, 235. Weight (1) 449 g.
Western Dani name, “inikiyappit;” Baliem, “iolmaik;” Swart name, “jukkola” or “‘kola.”

Macropygia amboinensis doreya Bonaparte

Taken on Misool, Kofiau, Waigeu and Arar in Sele Strait, these birds had wing
measurements of: ¢ 161-165, and were found at low altitudes. Weight ¢ 124 g.

Macropygia amboinensis kerstingt Reichenow

This subspecies of the north coast is similarly small; wing ¢ 164, 165.5 and weighs

about the same; 2 122 g, but is paler below, closer to batchianensis which, however, is
much larger.

Macropygia amboinensts balim Rand

A considerable series of this large altitudinal subspecies was taken by Khakiaj in the

Baliem Valley evidently with gustatory forethought. In color these birds are surprisingly
similar to far-away batchianensis though still larger in size;

balim batchianensis
wing ¢¢ 172-184 169, 171

LIST OF THE SPECIES 29

Unfortunately no notes or weights were taken of this form though I have a Western
Dani name, “‘jokoik.”

Macropygia nigrirostris nigrirostris Salvadori
A pair from the Baliem measure; wing ¢ 145, 2 142. Also called “jokoik” according
to Khakiaj.

Reinwardtoena reinwardtsi griseotincta Hartert

A female from Waigeu is paler on the head showing a trend towards reinwardtsi of
the Moluccas. Birds in breeding condition were taken in October and November. Sitting
quietly at mid level in heavy forest these doves are very inconspicuous unless they fly
or call, the latter a soft cooing note. Western Dani name, “‘koté,” Haga Dani “jooku,”
Uhunduni “wilakkom.”

Chalcophaps stephani stephani Pucheran
Taken on Misool and also at Sentani Lake. Weight 2 108, 130, im. 2 98, 104.
Immature birds lacking the white forehead and duller above were taken from October

to December.

Henicophaps albifrons albifrons Gray
Found only at Holtekong in heavy inland forest about 400 feet above the bay.
A female on July 7 had an oviduct egg. Iris dark brown, bill brown, feet red. Weight

as Pe

Gallicolumba rufigula rufigula (Pucheran)

Three specimens from Misool Island are indistinguishable from typical rufigula of
mainland New Guinea. They were taken in dense interior lowland forest in January,
February and November, and a February male is marked as having enlarged gonads
while a November female has granular ovaries. Soft parts: iris dull purple, ocular skin
dull brownish purple, bill and cere basally dark purple, distally horn, feet purplish-blue,
legs anteriorly purplish-blue, posteriorly purple. Wing 6 132, 133, 2 123; weight (2)
141 g.

Gallicolumba rufigula septentrionalis Rand

Two males from Holtekong on Hollandia Bay exhibit the characters used by Rand
in separating this subspecies. The wing edgings are slightly narrower, the crown more
suffused with brown, and the gray areas on the head more confined to the superocular
and auricular regions. These birds were found in heavy forest back from the bay at about
400 feet altitude. A nest of this species was found at Bodim August 4. It was a tiny cup
31% inches in diameter made in a small bird’s nest fern growing from the side of a
sapling about nine feet above the ground in dense forest.

Goura cristata minor Schlegel

I have already (1959B) mentioned the Crowned Pigeons collected on Misool Island,
which appear smaller than those from Waigeu, wing 46 6 327-335, 22 320, 324 against
Waigeu 6 6 350-365, 22 318 (1), 333-353. It would appear that more material should
be secured before a definite judgement is made, however. Color notes on a melanic
Misool female, taken November 14, are: iris red, bill black, feet light purple, legs, scutes
blackish-purple, integument white.

Goura victoria beccarit Salvadori

A pair of these magnificent Crowned Pigeons were collected in early July on the Tami
River, the male in wing moult, the primaries well developed but in partial sheath. This
bird is somewhat melanic, the lower abdomen being blackish and with blackish patches
on the back. A pullus, not long out of the nest was taken at Poee October 10, the neck
bare in a median patch from the chin to the lower throat, but otherwise with a small

30 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

crest and other adult-appearing plumage. The wings are fairly well developed though in
partial sheath, and I would hazard that this is an eight-week old flying juvenile. Iris red,
bill dark gray, distally white, feet pinkish red.

PSITTACIDAE, Parrots

Chalcopsitta atra bernsteini Rosenberg

On the southeast coast of Misool there is an area of huge sugarloafs of eroded lime-
stone rock. Just back of this between the small boat channel and Fafanlap in an area of
highly leached, eroded soil, the stunted trees are widely spaced with open heath-like
stretches of low bushes between them. Ground orchids were in flower and some of the
trees were going into a brief deciduous phase adding to the color of the scene. Several
flocks of the black lory flew from one to another of the small clumps of stunted trees,
the only bird that we found in this depauperate-appearing area. A female had soft parts:
iris light yellowish-brown, bill and feet black; wing 187; weight 260 g.

Chalcopsitta atra atra (Scopoli)

A male with enlarged gonads was taken December first in coconut palms at Arar in
Sele Strait. Soft parts: iris outer ring reddish brown, inner ring yellow, bill and feet
black. Wing 183.5. Wing moult present. Call, a high chitter, sounding like a parakeet
of a third the size of this species.

Chalcopsitta duivenbodei duivenbodei (Dubois)
A pair were taken at Poee on Lake Sentani. Wing ¢ 171, 2 170.5.

Eos squamata squamata (Boddaert)

A male and two females were taken by Khakiaj on Ajoe Island in coconut palms
north of Waigeu. Wing ¢ 160, @ 150.5, 155.

Eos squamata attenua Ripley

The reduced violet nuchal collar of this form from the Schildpad Islands was remarked
upon by Mayr and de Schauensee in their paper on western Papuan Island birds (1939B).
A map in this paper (1939, p. 146) shows the location of these coral islets north of Misool
and southwest of Salawati. I asked Jusup Khakiaj to return to Kamoa Island which he
did in March, 1955, and collected two specimens, which have greatly reduced violet
collars and rather bright underparts, particularly on the tail.

Wing ¢ 152, 2 (type) 154.

Pseudeos fuscata incondita (Meyer)

Found from sea level to 5000 feet in the Baliem, all of our series appear to be in a
uniform reddish-orange color phase. Flocks of this lory were common flying high over
the trees on the Tami River, and circling among the groves of mangos and other orna-
mental fruiting trees near Ifaar on Lake Sentani.

Soft parts: iris orange, bill and surrounding facial skin orange, feet black. Wing ¢
161-170; 2 156-162; weight (2) 170 g.

None of these specimens show moult or gonadal activity. The musky body smell of
this species is the most highly developed of any of the lories.

Trichoglossus haematodus haematodus (Linnaeus)

A pair from Misool were taken in coconut palms in a village. Wing ¢ 141, 2 134;
weight ¢ 119, 2 111 g. The male had slightly enlarged gonads in late November. The
female has extremely broad black edges to the breast feathers.

Trichoglossus haematodus intermedius Rothschild and Hartert

A poorly defined subspecies. Of our five specimens from Bodim, the Swart Valley and
Lake Sentani, one is indistinguishable from haematodus, the other three have less blue

LISTE OF THE SPEGIES 31

on the forecrown and sides of the head. Wing ¢ 141-2, 9 136, 0 136. Weight ¢ 145, 149;
Q 128. These birds which are not in breeding condition, or in moult, but were taken in
July and August, are significantly heavier than typical haematodus. I have measurements
of my specimens of rosenbergii, taken on Biak in November, December 1937 as: ¢ 102-
119 g, much closer to haematodus, (Mayr and de Schauensee, 1939A). Western Dani name
(Swart Valley) “ginin.”

Lorius lory major Rothschild and Hartert

A pair from Waigeu are smaller than a male from Misool; wing 6 166, 2 156 versus
the Misool male, 168, which does not support the larger size of this subspecies. There is
probably considerable variation in these island birds. The other characters of blue hind
neck and longer bill do not agree in these specimens either. It seems that this is a very
poorly defined form on the basis of these skins.

Lorius lory lory (Linnaeus)

A male taken in November on Misool has slightly enlarged gonads. The second
primary (from the outside) on one side and the first and second on the other are in
sheath. Soft parts: iris yellow, bill orange-red, feet black. Weight, 245 g.

Lorius lory viridicrissalis de Beaufort

Of three males taken in early July on the Tami River, one is in breeding condition.
None appear to be in moult. Soft parts: iris orange-yellow, bill orange, feet black.
Weight 207, 209, and (gonads enlarged) 222 g. A single female had a yellow iris and
weighed 163 g.

Charmosyna papou goliathina Rothschild and Hartert

Found in the Ilaga at 10,700 and 11,000 feet and in the Baliem at 5000 feet. As Rand
has pointed out (1942, p. 447) the melanic birds are commoner at mid-montane altitudes,
i.e. 5000 feet. Both Baliem specimens are blackish, while one Haga specimen is blackish
and one wild-type. The four melanic males are not constant in plumage. One has a red
spot below the eye and red undertail coverts in a solid black under plumage. One has a
red patch on the belly. One has a red patch on the breast and red flanks.

One Ilaga male is in breeding condition September 5. Wing, 5 ¢ ¢ 138-148; weight
é 92 g.

Charmosyna josephinae josephinae (Finsch)

A dried skin mounted on a stick was bought from a Dani in the Swart Valley (upper
Rouffaer River) by Miss Denise O’Brien in August, 1962. Western Dani name “luado.”
We failed to meet the species otherwise.

Charmosyna pulchella rothschildi (Hartert)

At Bodim at 300 feet altitude we found large flocks of this species feeding with
placentis and many meliphagids in a cluster of three spreading flowering trees with large,
rather rounded, slightly hairy leaves and clusters of pale pink flowers which looked very
much like those of the “jambu,” Eugenia sp. In this cluster, which we revisited daily, we
collected meliphagids of two species and three species of lorikeets. Larger parakeets were
also present, but we did not succeed in finding out the species to which they belonged.

None of these birds was in breeding condition although two females had ovaries
slightly enlarged. One immature female was taken lacking the dark nape and the dark
breast area and yellow shaft streaks.

Wing ¢ ¢ 96-99, 2 2 95-99.5. These measurements are slightly larger than those given
by Rand (1942). Weight ¢ 4 34-46 g; 2992 35-42; im Q 35g.

This is normally a submontane species found above 2500 feet altitude.

Charmosyna rubronotata rubronotata (Wallace)
Three birds were taken at Bodim from the flowering trees on July 31. Wing 6 é 82

32 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

(moult), 88, 2 82. One male is showing moult round the ears and neck. Weight 4 3 34,
aoe OPS se.

Charmosyna placentis ornata Mayr

A pair of this bright little lorikeet were taken at Arar on December 4. The male is
showing head and wing covert moult. Wing 2 88. Weight ¢ 39, 2 40 g. This compares
with a series of intensior from Batjan which weighed 6 4 35-39; 22 36-41 g, and
subplacens from Bodim which weighed 4 6 38-48; @ 40-46 g.

Charmosyna placentis subplacens (Sclater)

A number of this form of the Beautiful Lorikeet were also taken in the same
myrtaceous flowering tree as pulchella and rubronotata at Bodim. Their weights are
listed in the paragraph above where it appears this subspecies is slightly heavier than
ornata or intensior. It also appears slightly larger as wing measurements indicate:
é 4 85-96 (91), 22 88-92 (91). Twelve specimens were taken at the flowering trees in
three days’ collecting in contrast to other species:

July 29 July 30 July 31

Charmosyna pulchella — 5 6
ae rubronotata = — 3
2 placentis 2 5 5

All these three species of lorikeets are very close in size and weight and are presumably
in competition in the lowland forest wherever they occur. It is even more provocative
in this connection to find placentis occurring in the identical biotope in northern Nether-
lands New Guinea where previously only rubronotata had been found. However, of the
three, rubronotata is apparently far less common as the experience of previous collectors
will testify, (vide Rand, 1942). The race p. subplacens had not been previously found in
northern New Guinea west of the Sepik River.

Oreopsittacus arfaki major Ogilvie-Grant
Found from 8000-12,000 feet above sea level in the Ilaga. These birds were commonly
collected by Dani from trees in flower. Wing ¢ ¢ 82.5-89 (85.5), 29 83-86 (84.5); weight
é $ 19-22 (non-breeding); 20, 21, 26 (breeding); 9 @ 19-24 g. Three males had enlarged
gonads in early September. Soft parts: iris dark brown, bill black, feet blackish-gray.
Ilaga Dani name, “attugop” or “bep-beluwo;” Uhunduni “pee weet.”

Neopsittacus musschenbroekii medius Stresemann

Musschenbroek’s Lorikeet was collected at 7500 feet in the Ilaga and lower down, at
5000 feet, in the Baliem. A juvenile male was collected August 25 in the Ilaga. The soft
parts of this bird were dull, yellowish-orange iris and brownish-yellow bill, in contrast
to the adult. The bright streaks about the eyes and cheeks are merely pale streaks in the
green feathers, and only a sprinkling of breast and abdomen feathers have red edgings.
Soft parts of adults: iris reddish-orange, bill yellow, feet gray.

A male taken August 19 is extremely worn but shows no sign of moult. The breast
feathers are frayed, lacking red edgings, the nape is badly frayed and the wing and tail
feathers are heavily worn. Presumably this bird has not long completed a nesting cycle.

Wing ¢ ¢ 116-123, 9 2 113-118; weight 3 3 50-55, 99 45, 47 g.

Neopsittacus pullicauda alpinus Ogilvie-Grant

This remarkably similar, almost sibling species to Musschenbroek’s Lorikeet has been
commonly called the alpine form of the former. It is smaller, more richly colored with a
smaller bill, and was found by us from 7500 to 11,000 feet in the Tlaga.

Soft parts: iris orange, bill orange, tip yellow, feet dark gray. No birds were in breed-
ing condition although one male had slightly enlarged gonads, and two others were very
worn in late August. One or two birds, otherwise indistinguishable in size, were dully
colored indicating perhaps that they were advanced juveniles.

EiSt. OR LAE SPECIES 33

Wing 44 98, 101 (juv. ?), 102-105; 22 97-103. Weight $4 30-38, 2 2 29-35 g (one
worn female, perhaps a juvenile specimen, weighed 25 g). These birds are slightly
smaller than the series taken by the Archbold Expedition (Rand, 1942).

Psittaculirostris edwardsit (Oustalet)

Two males, one adult, one juvenile were taken in the eastern Humboldt Bay area at
Holtekong and on the Tami River. The young bird was collected July 10. The adult was
one of a pair in an immense fig tree in the center of a Papuan garden near the river,
feeding on the fruit along with flocks of starlings, an appropriate site for a fig parrot,
so-called.

Soft parts: iris brown, bill black, feet greenish-gray. Wing ¢ 110; weight $118, juv.
6 92 g.

Opopsitta diophthalma diophthalma (Hombron and Jacquinot)

A male and two females were taken in the Baliem, at 5000 feet, far higher than ever
before recorded for this species. Unfortunately I have no field notes except that the
iris was brown, bill gray, feet gray. Wing 6 93, 2 93, 96. One female taken in mid-
February is showing head moult.

Micropsitta keiensis chloroxantha Oberholser

Four males, a female, and a male pullus were taken on Misool in October and
November. A November male had enlarged gonads. The pullus is covered with wisps of
white down. Weight ¢ ¢ 12-14, Q 12 g.

Several times these little parrotlets were observed in small groups working their way
up or around the bark of a flowering tree trunk, particularly figs, in the manner of tiny
woodpeckers. They have a very high-pitched squeaking. Rand (1942) reports on the
stomach contents of M. bruzjnii as being a white paste, a similar observation to mine on
keiensis, and concludes that they feed on a fungus.

Micropsitta pusto beccarti (Salvadori)
A female, taken on the Tami River in July weighed 15 g.

Probosciger aterrimus alecto (Temminck)

Two males from Waigeu have wing measurements of 349, 352 and a female from
Misool 325. These are much smaller birds in all dimensions than the population of the
adjacent mainland. Iredale (1956) has recently attempted to restrict the name aterrimus
to the western Islands of New Guinea and place the name alecto in synonymy. As
aterrimus had already been restricted long ago (van Oort, 1911) to northern Australia, it
seems most unwise to attempt merely on supposition about the travels of early voyagers,
to shift the type locality of “New Holland” as Mathews had also done in 1927.

Probosciger aterrimus goliath (Kuhl)

A single male with gonads slightly enlarged was taken in dense mangrove forest at
Arar on Sele Strait December 4. Wing 391. These birds feed on the seeds of the “‘kanari”
tree, Canarium sp.

Probosciger aterrimus stenolphus (van Oort)

Two females of this dark, lanceolate-crested form taken at Holtekong have wing
measurements of 358, 385. The larger bird is in very worn plumage in late September.

Cacatua galerita triton Temminck

Collected on Misool, Waigeu and at Poee on Lake Sentani. My own impression is
that cockatoos are less common, far more local than in 1937-8 during my first visit to
New Guinea. In the central highlands cockatoo feathers are much in demand and a small
trade in them as well as in yellow flank plumes of the bird of paradise exists between the
lowlands and highlands. These white feathers are confused in the Baliem valley by

34 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

the Dani people with those of the egret which occasionally visits the valley and lakes.
Both types of feather are important to the Baliem Danis.

Grand Valley Dani name, “‘jagik,” said to be found east in the Jalimo area of the
Valley at about 4000 feet.

Larius roratus pectoralis (P.L.S. Miiller)

A uniform series of this common parrot was taken at low altitudes on Misool and
Waigeu, and around Hollandia Bay. Occasional male specimens from the western islands
have a tendency to a bluish suffusion on the nape and occiput.

Wing ¢é ¢ 249-269 (260), 9 9 235-252 (243).

Geoffroyus geoffroyit pucherani Souancé

A few specimens were taken in coastal trees on Misool, Waigeu and at Arar on Sele
Strait. One male is in wing moult in March.

Wing 44 160, 168, 9 168. Weight 6 145, 99 150, 154 g.

By contrast a small series of cyanicollis from Batjan weight; 6 6 174, 188, 99 160,
184, 190, 222 g. The Batjan birds besides being larger (wing ¢ 174, 179, 2 170 (2), 178)
and much heavier, also show a surprising variation in weight. The extremely heavy
female (222 g) was the only specimen taken on Halmahera.

Geoffroyus geoffroyi minor Neumann

A small series was taken in the vicinity of Humboldt Bay. These specimens are small:
wing 6 159, 164, 9 154 and a single weight ¢ 159 g is approximately less also. A male
from Poee is coming into adult plumage in October, the brown of the head being in-
vaded by blue on the occiput and pinkish red on the lores and cheeks.

Tanygnathus megalorhynchus megalorhynchus (Boddaert)
A female from Misool was taken in February and shows wing moult.

Alisterus chloropterus moszkowskii (Reichenow)

A series of this species were taken at Bodim, around Hollandia Bay and in the Baliem
Valley near Wamena, higher than normally expected, although Rand (1942, p. 451)
reports that it may be found to 1400 m altitude, and Gilliard and Lecroy (1961) record
the species to 4500 feet near Telefomin.

Birds from along the north coast show small individual variation in the tones of the
color of the back, as pointed out by Mayr in suppressing a subspecific name proposed by
Neumann earlier. A subadult female from Poee on Lake Sentani has only the suggestion
of paler edgings on the inner web of the inner median primary wing coverts, and the
brighter inner lesser wing coverts of the shoulder are bright but hidden by the mantle.
In contrast adult birds, presumably through successive moults, have a bright shining
patch of greenish yellow throughout the median primary and secondary coverts.

A male from Bodim showed slight gonadal enlargement on the 29th of July. A
juvenile male was taken at Holtekong September 25. The bird has greenish feathers on
the lores and the breast feathers have brownish green bases which show through the
adjacent red tips to give a banded effect.

Soft parts: iris (4) red, (2) orange; bill, upper mandible (é) red, tip black, (2)
basally orange, distally black; lower mandible black; feet (4) black, (2) blackish-gray.
Wing é 2 179, 183, 185; 2 182-184 (5). Weight 3 138, 157; 9 146, 162 (2), g.

Psittacella brehmii intermixta Hartert

Brehm’s Ground Parrot was a sluggish inhabitant of the deep podocarpus and beech
forests on the hill sides above the Ilaga Valley. Although others have observed members
of the Psittacella group on the ground in forest glades, I have not been as lucky. Our
specimens include a male, a young bird, with incompletely ossified skull, which has a
plain olive-green breast with a few banded feathers scattered through the lower breast,
abdomen and flanks. The scarlet under tail coverts also have terminal black edges with

LIST OF THE SPECIES 35

a single subterminal narrow yellow bar. Otherwise the coloration of bill, head, back, tail,
etc. is similar to the adult. This agrees more with Hartert’s statement (1930, p. 107) contra
Rand (1942, p. 452).

Soft parts: iris ¢ yellow, 2 brown, bill ¢ bluish gray, @ basally gray, distally dull
yellow; feet ¢ blackish gray, @ dull, dark gray. Wing ¢ 134, 2 129-131; weight ¢ 118,
#115; 120g:

Psittacella lorentzi van Oort

A male in breeding condition September 5 and five females were collected in the
Ilaga at altitudes ranging up to 11,000 feet. This inconspicuous little ground parrot
occupies the same jungle habitat as its larger congener. Soft parts: iris brown (yellow in
two females); bill, ¢ basally blue, tip grayish white, 9 bluish gray; feet blackish gray,
(brownish black in two females; not those with yellow irides). I am at a loss to determine
why two specimens had yellow irides. The male and one female have a slightly bronzey
cast to the feathers of the crown. This is a good species and stands by itself as Rand
(1942, p. 452) points out.

Wing ¢ 110, 2 2 107-112.5; weight 2 2 52, 55, 58, 60 g.

CUCULIDAE, Cuckoos
Cuculus saturatus saturatus Blyth

A September male from Waigeu of this migrant has already been recorded by me
(1959, p. 15). The bird has a wing measurement of 187.5.

Cacomantis variolosus infaustus Cabanis and Heine

A series from Misool, Kofiau east as far as the Baliem and Lake Sentani area are rela-
tively uniform in being rather dark gray below.

Wine 3. 120) 125:°9° 117; 12070 116-121.*

Swart Dani name, “pijara.”

Cacomantis pyrrophanus excitus Rothschild and Hartert

Taken in the Baliem and the Ilaga in varying states of plumage. A juvenile male just
out of the nest was collected in the Ilaga September 10, the upper plumage dark brown
with traces of terminal barring, the underparts heavily barred. Several specimens are
moulting from the barred subadult into adult plumage in August, a state which may imply
that the juvenal barred plumage is retained for nearly a year. The barring is replaced
with solid colored feathers on the breast and abdomen in a patchy, random manner.
Gray feathers appear on the throat commencing at the chin, and dark slaty-blue feathers
invade the crown, mantle and greater primary and secondary coverts. At the same time
the very worn brown-notched rectrices are being replaced with white-notched rectrices.
Two juveniles, one a nestling (September 30) were taken which are in completely barred
plumage above and below. The barring of the lower parts is much paler than in the second
barred plumage of the subadult. Evidently the nestling plumage with bars on the upper
parts is moulted after a few months into a subadult plumage of darker barring below and
the gradual reduction of barring above. Present evidence would indicate a full year for
the production of these two immature stages with their accompanying moults.

Wing 6 138, 139; 2 136, 140, 142; o 138-144 (143). Weight 6 45, 46, 50; 9 52 g. Soft
parts: iris brown, eyelid yellow; bill black, gape orange; feet brownish yellow, olive
brown (subadult).

Cacomantis castaneiventris arfakianus Salvadori
Two adult males were collected at Bodim and on the Tami River. The Bodim male,

*It is worth recording that we secured a single specimen of the rare Cacomantis heinrichi Strese-
mann on Batjan Island. The male was in breeding condition in early October, had a wing
measurement of 112, and weighed 32 g.

36 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

collected August 6, with gonads slightly enlarged, was sitting on the very top of a giant
tew”
tew
“tew
on an ascending scale which sounded as if it were a small babbler or other skulker deep
in the fallen underbrush near the base of the tree. The persistence of the call and some
minutes of reorientation finally persuaded me to locate the source of the noise (not unlike
the repetitive call of an American Cardinal, Richmondena) some one hundred feet
over my head.
Soft parts: iris dark brown, dull yellow (Tami River), ocular skin yellow; bill dark
brown, gape yellow; feet yellow (¢ testes not enlarged), orange (6 testes slightly enlarged).

isolated tree in a cleared area of trail. It was calling a ventriloqual note

Cacomantis castaneiventris arfakianus S weisket

An immature male with a wing measurement of 109 was taken in the Baliem. The
dark underparts seem to place this highland bird with the form weiskei from southeast
New Guinea, as it lacks the pale mid-abdomen of young of arfakianus. In size it belongs,
however, with the latter form.

Chalcites ruficollis (Salvadori)
A male from the Ilaga was taken at 7500 feet.
Wing 94; weight 21 g.

Rhamphomantis megarhynchus megarhynchus (Gray)

A single male was taken near Tamulol, interior Misool, by me out of a large evergreen
forest tree. It is in the immature plumage of the genus, rather plainly marked below with
gray throat, sooty-buff breast and creamy brown lower breast, unflecked with the fine,
regular cross-barring of ‘“‘dusky ash” (Shelley, 1891), or ‘‘feiner unregelmassiger schwarz-
brauner Querbanderung’”’ (Stresemann and Paludan, 1932). In this plumage it agrees
well with a specimen in the American Museum of Natural History collection (no. 268532)
from Passim, southwest coast of Geelvink Bay, collected by A. B. Meyer, although it is
much darker, more olivaceous brown on the upper parts. From this specimen it is,
however, markedly different in its small proportions, short wing, tail and minute bill and
small feet. In shape, however, the soft yellow gape and the exaggerated angle of the
gonys of the mandible posterior to the myxa, reveal this to be an immature bird, perhaps
not long out of the nest, though with wings and tail fully developed. It is conceivable,
therefore, that this specimen could represent either a new small resident subspecific
population from Misool, or when adult, could approximate the size of other known
specimens from the New Guinea mainland.

7
SS
ww

Figure 3. Head and bill of Rhamphomantis megarhynchus specimens; juv. Misool I. (YPM
75000) on left, ad. Passim, Geelvink Bay (AMNH 268532) on right. Slightly larger
(about 1/5) than life size.

LIST OF THE SPEGIES 37

Measurements in mm:

middle toe

megarhynchus wing tail culmen tarsus with claw
Misool I. 86 60 16 16 16.5
Passim, Humboldt Bay 94.5(2) 68, 70 22 75,18 18, 19
(Gyldenstolpe specimen,

1955B) 93 22 17
(Reichenow specimen, 1915) 95 80(?) 7S 17
Waigeu (type of m. sanford) 99 76 (broken) V7 21

Soft parts: iris light brown, bill brown, gape light yellow, feet grayish brown.
Weight 24 g.

It is unfortunate that I secured this single specimen of New Guinea’s rarest cuckoo
with no opportunity for observational or behavioral notes. It is obvious from examination
that this genus belongs close to Microdynamys and Eudynamys in the construction of the
base of the mandible. The mandibular rami are strong and arched making a V-shaped
mental angle with ridged commissure or raphe, not a rounded angle with no trace of a
commissure or raphe as in Cuculus, Cacomantis and Chalcites.

Scythrops novae-hollandiae Latham

A migrant, the Channel-billed Cuckoo was first seen flying into our area in early
September. After September 7 on Halmahera, daily flights of these birds were observed.
The first specimen seen in the Hollandia area was September 29, as was the first seen
on Waigeu. A later date for the species was October 2 on Misool.

Wing 3 342 (2), 2 (juv.) 346, (ad.) 370. A Halmahera specimen had a half-ingested
mass of fruit in the stomach.

Centropus menbeki menbeki Lesson

Found in forest edges on Misool, round Lake Sentani and at Holtekong. These birds
have a variety of gurgling, booming calls.

Wing ¢ 216, 221, 2 220. Bill 4 53, 55, 9 50.

Weight 2 505 g.

Centropus bernsteinit bernsteinit Schlegel

A pair were taken in long grass at Ifaar on Lake Sentani.
Wang S674, 9 172.

TYTONIDAE, Barn or GRouND OwLs
Tyto tenebricosa arfaki (Schlegel)

Two females (one smaller bird may be missexed) of this uncommon black barn owl
were secured March and October in the Baliem Valley near Wamena and at Ibolim.
Neither bird was in breeding condition. One bird has all white, or clear white, edged
outer margins of three of the greater primary wing coverts on one side and slightly less
clear white edges on two of the feathers of the other side with an additional edging to a
lesser wing primary covert giving the effect of a white patch or band on the wing. This
is an aberrant condition, perhaps a by-product of a very small inbred population.

Wing 254 (2 = ¢ ?), 283; tail 116, 132; tarsus 60, 70; culmen (from cere) 24, 26.

Tyto capensis baliem, subsp. nov.

Type: 6 ad. (YPM No. 74786), collected September 9, 1961, near Wamena, Baliem
Valley, Netherlands, New Guinea, by Jusup Khakiaj.

Diacnosis: from c. papuensis of the Australian part of New Guinea, this form differs by
being much darker, deep fuscous, rather than smokey-brown splotched with isabelline of
the former race. Here and there isabelline feathers appear, among the lesser primary

38 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

wing coverts, in basal patches of the lesser secondary wing coverts, and at the base of the
rump. But these patches are reduced and show up relatively little against the over-
all dark fuscous effect of the upper parts which is carried down onto two dark patches on
the sides of the neck, a feature that is absent from the two birds photographed at Kup by
Gilliard (Mayr and Gilliard, 1954, p. 341 and pl. 17.)

It is unfortunate that Gilliard did not collect these birds as there is only a single
specimen in the American Museum collection from the Huon Peninsula, although
Gilliard (¢bid. p. 341) reports the species as “common.” It is an extremely irregular species
in occurrence, confined in the tropics to patches of old highland grassland and can
hardly be described throughout its range in the Oriental and Australasian regions as
common. In any case, our specimen appears to be the first seen or collected in the western
half of New Guinea.

SorT parts: iris dark brown, bill white, feet grayish brown.

MEASUREMENTs: wing 330, tail 122, tarsus 70, culmen (from cere) 22.

RancE: known only from the type specimen from the Baliem Valley, Netherlands New
Guinea, 4500-5000 feet.

STRIGIDAE, Ow Ls
Ninox theomacha theomacha (Bonaparte)

A single unsexed specimen from the Konda River, Swart Valley, taken by Dani hunters
for Miss Denise O’Brien, in August, 1962, is our only specimen of this species. Wing 179.

Ninox rufa humeralis (Bonaparte)

A male was collected in heavy forest several miles back from the coast of Holtekong
July 7. It attracted attention as it was being mobbed by drongos and other small birds.
Iris yellow, bill pale gray, cere yellow, feet yellow. Wing 332.

PODARGIDAE, Froc-MouTHS
Podargus papuensis Quoy and Gaimard

Found from sea level to 5000 feet and in all areas where we collected. Of the sixteen
adults taken four of the females are in a rufescent state of plumage, especially noticeable
on the neck and breast areas. One juvenile with patches of down feathers on the sides of
the chest, flanks, belly and thighs was taken at Ifaar on Lake Sentani in mid-July. A
largely downy young with juvenal feathers on the sides of the head, wings and tail and
whitish nestling feathers on the crown, back and underparts was collected on Misool
January third.

Soft parts: (juvenal) iris brown, bill grayish horn, feet grayish olive brown. Wing
$$ 267, 285, 300; 2 2 263-310 (286.4).

Podargus ocellatus ocellatus Quoy and Gaimard

A pair, the female with granular ovaries, were taken on Misool in heavy forest on
November 21.

Wing ¢ 169.5, 2 182. Soft parts: iris brown, bill ¢ light brown, @ light horn, feet
é pale pinkish flesh, 9 whitish flesh. Weight ¢ 137, 9 132 g.

AEGOTHELIDAE, LitrLe Froc-MouTHs
Aegotheles archboldi Rand

Junge (1953, p. 58) reports that archboldi and albertisii salvadorii were collected at
the same locality northeast of the Wissel lakes. Our series from the Ilaga Valley all are
typical of the coarse-barred archboldi.

Soft parts: iris brown, bill dark brown, feet flesh, nails dark brown. Wing ¢ é 111-120
(117); 2 109-112; tail 6 95, 96, 97, 99; 9 90, 92; culmen 6 10, 11 (2), 11.5, 12; 9 11.5, 12.
Weight 6 4 29, 30; 2 30 (3) g.

LIST OF THE SPECIES 39

The fact that the collection of birds made by Dr. Boschma and Mr. van Eechoud in
the Wissel Lakes area reported on by Junge included specimens of Aegotheles albertisi
salvadorit and Aegotheles archboldi, heretofore considered to be geographical representa-
tives, is most interesting. Archboldi was described by Rand (1941, p. 10) as a race of
albertisii, as it was the only representative small owlet frog-mouth secured in the area of
Lake Habbema and the Baliem. The altitude at which specimens were taken ranged from
7216 to 9184 feet (2200-2800m). Our specimens were all taken between 7500 and 11,000
feet. The localities in the Wissel Lakes region for A. a. salvadorii were Paniai Lake and
Araboebivak and for A. archboldi at Araboebivak only. The latter camp is 50 metres
higher than the Lake and more on the edge of the mountain slopes. Both localities lie
at a little over 6700 feet. Two specimens only of archboldi were secured while five were
taken of salvadorit. As these birds are identical in size and proportions and differ only in
the relative coarseness of the barring, pencilling or dappling of the plumage pattern, it
would appear that they are two good, virtually sibling species which are normally alti-
tudinally separated where their ranges overlap geographically as follows:

Central New Guinea

Mountains
Australian Aegotheles albertisit A. archboldi
a) Southeast New Guinea present
3300-9500 ft.
b) Mt. Hagen present
7500-8500 ft.
c) Nondugl present
4900 ft.
d) Victor Emanuel Mts. present
4800 ft.
Netherlands
e) Wilhelmina area, Baliem present
7216-9184 ft.
f) Nassau Range present
7500—11,000 ft.
g) Wissel Lakes area present present
6700 ft.
h) Wandammen Mts. present
4500 ft.
i) Arfak Mts. present
6560 ft.

The overlap at the Wissel Lakes is perhaps marginal. If so, albertistt would appear to
occur at lower elevations in the presence of archboldt. If archboldi really occurs as low
in the Victor Emanuel Mountains as 4800 feet, it is perhaps another marginal area of
overlap. Often Papuans bring specimens in to camp from widely disparate altitudes.
However, such meager evidence as there is suggests that albertisit outside of the range of
archboldi may be found from 3300 to 9500 feet. Within the range of archboldi it occurs
up to 6700 feet. Archboldi is recorded from 4800 feet (once?), otherwise from 6700 to
11,000 feet.

Aegotheles insignis insignis Salvadori

Two males, one in the rufescent phase, from the Ilaga measure: wing 154, 161.5; tail,
124, 133; culmen 17, 18. Weight 67, 85 g.

Soft parts: iris brown, light brown (rufescent), bill, dark brown, light brown (rufescent),
feet, pale tan, flesh.

40 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

CAPRIMULGIDAE, GoaATsUCKERS
Caprimulgus macrurus schillmollert Stresemann

A series of seven birds from Waigeu seem slightly smaller than two males from Batjan
and Halmahera, but this is partly due to the make-up of the skins. However, all, while
agreeing in color tone with the north Moluccan birds, have a far more extensive and
pronounced vermiculated pattern on the feathers of the lower throat and breast. This is
perhaps a variable feature and I would hesitate to separate the population on that basis
alone.

Wing ¢ 181, 186.5; 9 179-181.

Some degree of wing moult is shown by these birds, taken in September, the moult
terminating at the outermost primary. The Halmahera (topotype) and Batjan males have
wing measurements of 188, 189, and one has the outer primaries in sheath. Both have
enlarged gonads and weighed 78, 79 g.

Jusup Khakiaj noted that his Waigeu birds were calling and flying at about six in the
morning. It is then and at dusk that their monotonous “tok, tok” call can be heard.

Caprimulgus macrurus yorki Mathews

Found from sea level at Hollandia to 4500 feet near Wamena in the Baliem and
Bokindini, west Baliem. A nestling was taken in the Baliem in January.
Wing 2 174-180.

Eurostopodus archboldi Mayr and Rand

A male in fresh plumage from the Ilaga at 7500 feet is our only record.

Wing 191.5, tail 134.5, culmen (from cere) 7. Weight 74 g.

Comparison of this specimen with others in the American Museum of Natural History
collection gives no indication of any geographical variation of color range or plumage
pattern of this rare, little-known species. This is a slight westward extension of the species.

APODIDAE, Swirts
Mearnsia novaeguineae novaeguineae D’Albertis and Salvadori
A series from Bodim in early August are in slightly worn plumage and show no sign of
breeding activity.
Wing ¢ 123-130.5 (126.9), 2 127; weight 4 29-39 (35.5), 9 29 g.
These swifts hawked among the high forest trees, but descended occasionally at dawn
into the clearing near our camp site at Bodim. In the early morning mist they flicked by

us with a perceptible ‘“whish.” Occasionally they called, a short chitter as they flew up
over the trees.

Collocallia esculenta esculenta (Linnaeus)

Three males from Misool and Bodim have wing measurements of 93.5 (worn), 97.5,
98. These specimens weigh 5, 8, 10 g respectively and when compared with birds from the

hills seem so much smaller in proportion that it is probably useful to keep the two
populations separate.

Seen hawking over forest trails and clearings.

Collocalia esculenta erwini Collins and Hartert

Two Ilaga birds, juveniles are in wing moult September 5. Other specimens from the
Baliem and Ilaga measure: wing, 108-114 (112.5); weight 9-10 g.
Swart Dani name, “wuditnuk.”

Collocalia hirundinacea hirundinacea Stresemann

This species with feathered tarsi, paler, more grayish underparts, often showing dark
brownish shaft streaks, a prominent white loral spot and white downy tips on the back
feathers, was the common swift in the Ilaga, often hawking over exposed bluffs in the

LIST OF THE SPECIES 41

cleared fields at mid-day where presumably warm updrafts brought many insects into
the air.

Wing 121-127. The overlap cited by Rand (1942, p. 458) and noted by us makes one
dubious about the value of preserving the name excelsa Ogilvie-Grant for a bird with a
wing measurement of 127. Weight 9 (1), 10-11 g.

Wing in some birds in moult September 5.

Collocalia vanikorensis granti Mayr

Holtekong, Bodim, and Misool. Wing 113, 114, 117.5. Misool birds 114 (2), 116 as I
reported (1959, p. 16). Weight 12 (2), 14 g. Two August birds are juveniles with unossified
skulls. A female from Holtekong (July 7) had slightly enlarged gonads and much swollen
salivary glands.

HEMIPROCNIDAE, CrestTEep SwIFTs
Hemiprocne mystacea mystacea (Lesson)

A common bird in open country or forest edges near the coast, on Misool and in
the Hollandia Bay area. Wing moult was observed in October. A male, taken in July
in non-breeding condition weighed 74 g. A pair of the Moluccan race, confirmata, taken
on Halmahera in September in breeding condition weighed ¢ 76, 2 69 g.

ALCEDINIDAE, KINGFIsHERS
Alcyone azurea lessonti Cassin

Two females were taken in bird nets in dense forest on Misool in November. The
nets were set over a small stream near our camp at Tamulol. These birds had granular
ovaries, and measured: wing, 74.5, 75, and weighed 33, 39 g.

Soft parts: iris dark brown, bill black, tip white, feet orange.

Ceyx lepidus solitarius ‘TTemminck

Taken on Waigeu, Misool and on the mainland at Bodim. Soft parts: iris brown,
bill black, feet orange.

Wing 3 52-56, 9 56. Weight 9 16, 20 g.

A series of the pale-billed uropygialis from the Moluccas weigh ¢ é 11-20 g, 2 17,
24 g. The heaviest female had enlarged ovaries September 13.

Syma torotoro torotoro Lesson

A juvenile bird with black bill was taken on Misool November 19. The tomia of the
culmen are barely toothed, the saw-tooth appearance apparently not developing markedly
until later. Perhaps this is correlated with the change of color of the bill, and is achieved
by a process of wear. This species has an unkingfisher-like chittering call. One Misool
juvenile male has a white spot in the center of the broken black nuchal collar. This ap-
pears irregularly in series and may be a character of juvenal plumage.

Wing ¢ 79.5, 2 80, juv. 6 78. Weight juv. ¢ 42 g.

Syma megarhyncha wellst Mathews
An adult was collected by Miss O’Brien at Katupata in the Swart Valley.

Clytoceyx rex rex Sharpe

A pair from Bodim in the Tor River area were taken in dense high forest. These birds
come down to the ground in damp areas and probe for invertebrates with their shovel-
like bills. Bergman (in Gyldenstolpe, 1955B) reports the stomach contents of a female
from the Anggi Lakes as lizards.

Soft parts: iris brown, bill, upper mandible dark brown, lower mandible whitish, feet
brownish gray.

42 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS
Wing ¢ 158, 2 160.5; weight ¢ 273, 2 303 g.
Tor River name, “kong.”

Sauromarptis gaudichaud (Quoy and Gaimard)

A series from Waigeu, Misool, Sele Strait and round about Hollandia are remarkably
uniform in size and color. One female which I assume to be subadult has black terminal
bars on the feathers of the white upper breast as well as the chestnut abdomen and
belly. The upper breast feathers are tinted with isabelline also like the neck feathers
forming the pale nuchal collar. A December male from Arar in Sele Strait is excessively
worn, the chestnut lower parts being very pale and washed out in tone as a result. The
central rectrices are in partial sheath, but curiously enough, are not the first to be re-
newed, as one of the two next lateral pair to the central pair has just been renewed and
is complete, its partner on the other side being still the previous old worn feather. ‘Two
July females from Bodim and Sentani have the outermost three primaries in sheath.

Wing ¢ 133-142, 9 137-149; weight ¢ 130, 2 156, 160 g.

Halcyon nigrocyanea quadricolor (Oustalet)

A single specimen of this rare kingfisher was collected at Holtekong in late September
by Jusup Khakiaj. It presumably was collected in interior forest as he told me that he
was in the foothills when he shot the bird. The outermost primaries are in sheath show-
ing that wing moult is nearly completed. This species would appear to form a superspecies
with Halcyon macleayii of Australia, H. diops of the Moluccas and H. winchelli of the

southern Philippines.

Halcyon sancta sancta Vigors and Horsfield
This migrant was collected on Kofiau and the Ajoe Islands as already reported by me
(1959B) and also on Waigeu, off Sarmi on the north coast and in the Ilaga at 7500 feet.
Weight ¢ 45, 2 51,52 g.

Halcyon saurophaga saurophaga Gould

Collected on the Schildpad Island of Kamoa, where I first remember meeting this
species in September, 1937; off Sarmi and near Hollandia.

Weight ¢ 105, 2 120 (2) g.

Tanysiptera galatea galatea Gray
Waigeu Island, September, 1955.

Tanysiptera galatea meyeri Salvadori

Immature specimens were collected at Bodim in August as well as an adult just
renewing its central tail feathers, the remaining rectrices being worn to stubs. Wear
additionally shows particularly on the breast of September adults, or of May juveniles
(elliot). This may be due to abrasion caused by contact with gravel and stoney soil when
digging on the forest floor for insects and worms. This bird calls with a distinctive
“wheeyou.”

Adults weighed ¢ 56, 2 65-72 g. In the subspecies margarethae from Batjan we re-
corded: ¢ 53, 56; 2 52, 78; in isis from Halmahera, ¢ 55, 2 69 g.

Tanysiptera ellioti Sharpe
I have already reported on our fine series of this beautiful bird, not previously col-
lected since 1875 (1959B).

Tanysiptera sylvia sylvia Gould

A single specimen, presumably a male, was taken July 10 at Holtekong. The worn
central tail feathers are almost completely dark, only having a narrow white edging on the
edges of inner vanes. Presumably this is a migrant to New Guinea.

LIST OF THE SPECIES 43

MEROPIDAE, BEE-EATERS
Merops ornatus Latham

A winter migrant taken on Kofiau, the Ajoe Is. and near Hollandia in July and
September. One male weighed 29 g.

Merops philippinus salvadorit Meyer

A male in breeding condition was collected near the airstrip at Ifaar, Sentani Lake,
August 11. These birds flew about the hangars, perched on telegraph wires and circled
tantalizingly overhead in full view of passersby, thus preventing the zealous collector
from securing more than one specimen. Some chasing was observed and pair formation
seemed to be in progress. The species has a loud double “‘chack-chack” note.

Soft parts: iris dull red, bill black, feet dark brown. Wing 131; weight 42 g.

CORACTIIDAE, Ro.Liers
Eurystomus orientalis orientalis (Linnaeus)

A common migrant found in forest clearings or along rivers or open country edges
in March and from July until November ranging from the sea coast to the Baliem.
A March specimen appears to be young and is just moulting a few new blue feathers on
the greenish throat. On July 1, on the Tami River, I observed a single bird at a
3-inch diameter hole in a dead stub in a Papuan garden. It was a male in non-breeding
condition, in worn plumage moulting in blue feathers on the throat.

Wing 69 189-197; weight é 130, 154, 2 130, 142 g.

Eurystomus orientalis cyanicollis Vieillot

Stresemann (1952) pointed out that the type locality of Linnaeus’ orientalis should
be Amboina, and, therefore, the Oriental region birds should be called cyanicollis. This
darker form, the underparts more richly calamine-blue-washed, appears as a migrant in
the Moluccas and even to Waigeu Island from which we have a September specimen.

Wing ¢@ 192-200; weight (Halmahera and Batjan birds) ¢ 166, 176, 2 175, 182.

BUCEROTIDAE, Hornsitys
Aceros plicatus ruficollis (Vieillot)

A familiar feature of dense high rain forest in the New Guinea lowlands up to 1500
feet, but in my experience far more local and less common than before World War II.
Only in the coastal lowland of Batjan did the hornbill seem as common as it had before
the War. Birds were showing some breeding behavior and searching for nest sites in late
September and October. A January male from Misool is indicated as being in breeding
condition. A September male from Waigeu is moulting the primaries.

PITTIDAE, Pitras
Pitta erythrogaster macklotit ‘Temminck

A series from Misool were collected in January, February, October and November.
There is no sign of moult. In color there is considerable variation in the feathers of the
crown of the head. Some specimens have blue edges to the inner margins of the crown
feathers. One specimen has a white feather or two on the lesser primary coverts, a feature
mentioned by Gyldenstolpe (1955B). Males show slightly enlarged testes in mid-November.

Wing ¢ 2 100-107 (103); weight 6 80, 86, 91, 96, 9 84g.

It is worth noting that a juvenile and another bird just moulting the throat feathers
from the dark buff of the juvenal to the adult black (but otherwise in adult plumage)
were taken on Batjan in mid-October. These two subadult females weighed 65, 67 g.

44 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

Pitta erythrogaster habenichti Finsch

A male and two females of this brightly colored pitta were taken at Bodim in late
July and early August. None show any sign of moult or gonadal development. This pitta
has a ventriloqual call which is most difficult to locate. I have often spent many minutes
looking for the caller on the ground only to locate it high up fifteen feet or more, in a
mid-height substage forest tree, usually one with moderate to heavy foliage, in which the
motionless singer is perfectly concealed. The call is a machine-like humming like a small
distant motor starting up. This is repeated over and over in a monotonous but highly
provocative way. Each burst of humming may last for two minutes, starting low, in-
creasing in intensity and then dying away.

Wing ¢ 2 100, 102.5, 106.5; weight ¢ 79, 90, 2 79 g.

Pitta sordida novae-guineae Miiller and Schlegel

I watched one of these beautiful pittas calling in a patch of sunlight in dense forest
on Misool. When the bird raised the wings very slightly, merely humping them up at the
shoulders, but thus exposing the glistening iridescent acquamarine blue patch of the
lesser primary coverts, the effect was like a flash, momentarily dazzling. The bird has a
loud mournful call, much louder in proportion than the size of this thrush-like creature
would lead one to expect.

A specimen from Holtekong is showing outer primaries in sheath July 10. In tone the
body plumage of this bird is more bluish, less greenish below, above (fresh) darker more
olive green, less bronzey-green (worn). This is a lighter bird than erythrogaster, even if
similar in wing length. November males show slightly enlarged gonads.

Wing ¢ 2 101-106; weight $77, 79, 2 70.

HIRUNDINIDAE, SwaLtows
Hirundo rustica gutturalis Scopoli
A migrant; an unsexed immature in worn plumage was taken near Wamena in the

Baliem. Two males from Batjan (Oct.) weighed 17 g (2).
Grand Valley Dani, “‘watatipo.”

Hirundo tahitica frontalis Quoy and Gaimard

Breeding on Batjan in late August and September, we failed to find any breeding birds
in New Guinea, although the species was collected in the Baliem.

Weight 4 16 (2), 9 14,015 ¢.

Petrochelidon nigricans nigricans (Vieillot)

Two birds were taken near the airstrip at Ifaar, Lake Sentani, August 11.
Weight ¢ 16,0 17g.

CRACTICIDAE, BELL MaAcpiEs
Cracticus cassicus cassicus (Boddaert)

Moulting adults were collected in February, September and October on Waigeu and
Misool Islands. Young birds, one from Holtekong not long out of the nest, were taken in
July, September and October. One October adult male from Poee was said to be in
breeding condition. The black and white butcher bird is a striking feature of cultivation
and forest edges in the coastal lowlands, its varied musical calliope-like notes are loud
and merry, notably near the airport at Biak. A male weighed 165 g, and the juvenile
from Holtekong taken in July, 154 g.

Cracticus quoyi quoyi (Lesson)
A juvenile, also in completely black plumage but with a bluish-gray bill, was taken on
Misool November 20. A female moulting the wing coverts was taken December 3rd. A

LIST OF THE SPEGIES 45

male, November 21, had enlarged gonads. The black butcher bird seems more locally
distributed than cassicus, and may be met with in deeper forest. A great variety of calls,
some like Paradisea, a loud ‘“‘ong ong.”

Soft parts: iris brown, bill black, basally gray, feet black. Weight ¢ 198, 2 164, juv.
25152 g-

ORIOLIDAE, ORI0LEs
Oriolus szalayt (Madarasz)

A subadult bird from Sentani, July 17, has a black bill and the throat more heavily
streaked with black and solid black on the sides of the lower throat. The lower primary
and secondary wing coverts have dull buffy-rufous edgings. Birds in breeding condition
were taken in August (Bodim), October (Poee) and December (Arar, Sele Strait).

Weight ¢ 107, 109; Q 100, 130 (ovaries enlarged).

Iredale (1956, vol. 2, p. 193) revives the name melanotis (Bonaparte) for this species.

DICRURIDAE, Droncos

Dicrurus hottentotus carbonarius Bonaparte

I have already published elsewhere the fact that Kofiau Island birds belong to the
race atrocaeruleus of the Moluccas (1959B). A nestling carbonarius was taken on Misool
on November 15. Adults in moult were taken in July and subadults with pale, light tips
or edgings to the feathers of the abdomen were taken on Waigeu in September. Breeding
birds were collected on Misool in mid-November and at Arar on December 4; on Batjan
(atrocaeruleus) September 30 and October 11.

Weight (grams): carbonartus atrocaeruleus
oiros 74, 81 (2), 91, 99 93, 95, 99, 100
QQ 74, 75 [nestling 57] 82, 96, 97

ARTAMIDAE, SWALLOW-SHRIKES
Artamus leucorhynchus leucopygialis Gould

Relatively uncommon in the lowland areas where we worked, we secured a female in
a forest clearing at Bodim. A September male from Halmahera weighed 46 g.

Artamus maximus Meyer

Common in the Ilaga at 7500 feet near the clearing of the airstrip, this bird has a
high chittering call, “chat chat chat’ as it flies. Birds were in breeding condition in late
August from the 20th to September 6. An immature bird on the wing was collected in
March in the Baliem. The skin of a nestling was brought in to Miss O’Brien in the Swart
Valley in August.

Swart Dani name, “watloman.

Wing ¢ ¢ 160-167, 9 171, ° 159-165; weight ¢ 59-70 g.

STURNIDAE, STARLINGS
Aplonis cantoroides (Gray)
Found on Lake Sentani, at Holtekong, on the small island off Sarmi, on Waigeu and
near Wamena in the Baliem Valley, a new record for the interior. July and August
males were in breeding condition. One bird, unsexed, taken in the Baliem in February-

March has a single immature streaked under tail covert.
Wing ¢ 101-104, 2 97-103; weight $ 57,61, 9 58g.

46 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

Aplonis mysolensis mysolensis (Gray)

Found on Kamoa in the Schildpad Island, off Waigeu and on the Ajoe Islands.

Wing @ 2 105-115.

A juvenile was collected near Kabare, Waigeu presumably in early September. An
immature male, a breeding male, and a female of forstert from Batjan weighed 57, 64
and 60 g respectively in October.

Aplonis metallica metallica (Temminck)

Collected on Misool, Waigeu, Sarmi island off Sarmi, Tami River and in the Ilaga
at 7500 feet. At Mosso on the Tami River in a village garden I found a nesting colony
of these metallic starlings high up in two huge, isolated Ficus sp. trees. The nests were
in clusters of two to three, made of fibrous branchlets, rather large and rounded like
weaver nests, suspended from the drooping ends of the tree branches. The entrance holes
were in the side. Pairs of adults were flying excitedly to and from the nests, landing on
the tip ends of the structures, calling and posturing. Close to them very often were two
or three young in pale subadult dress. These birds appeared to be courting also. An adult
bird chased a young bird away from the nesting area. I did not see any of the young
perch on any of the nests themselves. But there must be a great deal of reinforcement
and learning for the young birds in this situation.

A young bird not long out of the nest was taken on Waigeu in September. The
brownish plumage above and streaked plumage below shows only greenish metallic, no
purplish reflection. But the pointed tail and whitish basal coloration from throat to
under tail coverts would seem to place this specimen in meiallica rather than mysolensis.
A Tami River male had enlarged gonads on July 1. The Ilaga bird is a highland record,
but see Sims (1956) and Rand (1942) for other records in the highlands.

Wing ¢ 105, 111, 2 101-105; weight 6 66, 75 (testes enlarged), 9 45, 52, 59, 60 g.

Mino anais anais (Lesson)

A pair of this brightly-colored black-headed myna was taken in second growth scrub
and hibiscus trees at Arar.

Soft parts: iris yellow, ocular skin cream, bill yellow, tip black, feet yellow.

Wing ¢ 135, 2 137.5; weight 6 157, 9 125g.

Mino anais orientalis (Schlegel)

Two males from Bodim of this strikingly marked race with a golden-yellow head and
ear coverts measure: Wing 146, 151; weight 154, 175 g.

Soft parts: iris yellow, ocular skin dark blue, bill and feet yellow.

Mino dumontii dumontii Lesson

Dumont’s Mynah or Grackle was common on Waigeu and not seen on Misool.
A single bird was taken at Arar.

Soft parts: iris brown, facial skin yellow, bill and feet orange-yellow. Wing ¢ 150-155,
© 142, 151; weight o 204 g.

Mino dumontii violaceus Berlepsch

A form from the north coast of New Guinea (wing ¢ 153, 154, 160, 9 148-151)
roughly similar in size to dumontii but with larger orange skin patches. These birds ap-
pear to be larger and much heavier in the hand also.

Soft parts: iris brown, facial skin orange-yellow, bill orange, feet orange or orange-
yellow. Weight 6 4 237, 242 g.
Birds in breeding condition were taken in July and August.

CORVIDAE, Crows

Corvus fuscicapillus megarhynchus Bernstein

A female from Waigeu was collected by Khakiaj September 3.
Soft parts: iris blue, bill white, tip black, feet black. Wing 327.5.

LIST OF THE SPECIES 47

Corvus tristis Lesson and Garnot

Four of this curious-looking polymorphic crow were taken at Holtekong, although
we also saw it on the Tami River. This crow flies in small parties of up to twenty and is
rather shy, shifting position and nearly always staying on the fringe of original high
forest. One bird, a male in breeding condition, July 10, is rather blackish-brown, the
other three are pale with dirty cream colored heads.

Soft parts: iris light blue, bluish white, facial skin purplish pink, whitish, feet white,
black, flesh. Wing ¢ 292, 320, 9 323, 340.

Corvus orru orru Bonaparte

Kamoa, Schildpad Is., Arar and Waigeu. A male with enlarged gonads was taken
December 1 at Arar, while the Kamoa male taken in March has down on the lower vent
and thighs and pale skin round the base of the mandible and gular area showing that
it has not been long out of the nest. This species has a dull, low rattling croak in the
nesting season as well as the deep, harsh, raven-like caw of the species.

PARADISAEIDAE, Birps oF PARADISE

Loria loriae loriae Salvadori

A bird of low levels in the Ilaga forest, near the ground or in second-stage trees. All
our specimens are females without a single adult male. This is apparently due to the
heavy human predation on birds of paradise in the Haga Valley which effectively pre-
vents males in full plumage long escaping the plume hunters. Two birds taken in early
September are juveniles, one unsexed, not long out of the nest with traces of down on
the vent, lower flanks and thighs. In color they are similar to the adult female.

Wing 2 2 97-105 (102); weight 2 2 71 (1), 80-95 g.

Macgregoria pulchra carolinae Junge

Found above the main Ilaga Valley on the plateau trail heading west towards the
northern slopes of Carstenz from 8000 to 11,600 feet. These orange-wattled birds of
paradise are not shy, perching openly in bushy areas of alpine scrub, often feeding on
flowers and berries out in plain sight. Males with enlarged gonads were taken September
5, and a young, fully fledged, but still covered with down feathers round the head and
on the underparts was taken September 9.

Philip Temple, who visited the Carstensz plateau, north of Mount Carstensz in August,
1962, while on the New Zealand New Guinea Expedition, has sent me a note and photo-
graph of a specimen shot at 11,000 feet. The species was very tame, flying from clump to
clump of stunted podocarpus, making a whirring noise with the wings while in flight,
although they also glide silently. No calls were heard.

Western Dani (Ilaga) name, “‘wunin,” or “genat;” Uhunduni, “engabec.”

Manucodia ater ater (Lesson)

Several immature birds were taken on Waigeu, and at Poee and Holtekong. A female
weighed 198 g.

Manucodia jobiensis rubiensis Meyer
A male from the Tami River is in breeding condition June 30. Wing 175. Weight
229 g. Iris orange.

Manucodia chalybatus (Pennant)

A pair from Misool and an unsexed bird from Bokindini at 4200 feet represent our
series of this handsome manucode. Iris color was red in the male and sex indeterminate
specimen, orange in the female.

Weight ¢ 260, 2 242 g.

48 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

Ptiloris magnificus magnificus (Vieillot)

The Rifle-bird is unequally distributed in lowland forest along the north coast.
Whereas it appeared fairly common east of Hollandia along the farther bay, it was
scarce at Bodim. A male was in breeding condition July 2.

Wing 8 182, 183, é im. 174, 2 146-175. Weight ¢ 187, 2 127, 185.

Seleucides melanoleuca auripennis Schliiter

Male adults and young males, one with a black throat, the other merely with a black
cap, were taken by us on the Tami River and at Holtekong in July. One adult July 8
had slightly enlarged gonads.

Wing ¢ 163-164, juv. ¢ 160, 169; weight é 190, 202, juv. 182, 196 g.

Paradigalla carunculata intermedia Ogilvie-Grant

A single adult male Wattled Bird of Paradise from the Ilaga conforms to Ogilvie-
Grant's description of intermedia (1913) from the Utakwa River, Nassau Range, and
demonstrates that in fact two species, carunculata and brevicauda, are represented in the
central highlands. This subspecies of carunculata differs from the nominate form as origin-
ally cited by Ogilvie-Grant, namely in the shorter tail, and in the lower, mandibular
wattles being clear lemon yellow. My original notes on the soft parts of this specimen are:
iris dark brown, bill black, wattles (both sets, upper and lower) clear lemon yellow, feet
black. This specimen has a wing of 153, tail 110. Ogilvie-Grant’s birds had wing measure-
ments of 155-7, and the tail of his type specimen measured (in the lateral rectrices, the
central pair being shorter) 92. Presumably this central pair was new, not fully moulted
out, as in our specimen the tail has the normal wedge shape of carunculata, the central
rectrices being the longest. Weight 166 g.

Thus the range of carunculata should be:

P. carunculata carunculata, Vogelkop, Arfak Mountains.

P. carunculata intermedia, central highlands, Nassau Range.

P. brevicauda, central highlands from the Wissel Lakes, Weyland Mountains, Snow

Mountains east to the Oranje, Victor Emanuel, Sepik, Hagen and
Bismarck Mountains.
Western Dani (Ilaga) name, ‘genat;” Uhunduni, “‘tenengel.”

Drepanornis bruijnit Oustalet

Males and females were taken at Holtekong and Bodim. In very tall Agathis trees at
Bodim, July 28, I heard the male bird call, a loud, not unmusical series of descending
whistles reminiscent of the rifle bird. The first note starts at the tone and pitch of the
second note of the rifle bird’s call. From this start came a series of descending whistles,
repeated over again, several at a time. In between these extremely loud calls, this male
as it moved about in the tree made several gruff, churring notes rather like a typical
Paradisea. It was a male in breeding condition in adult plumage with the exception of a
patch of subadult barred feathers on the belly. One female is moulting the primary wing
coverts August 1.

Wing 6 153, 155, 156, 9 147, 150, 151. Soft parts: iris brown, ocular skin grayish-
brown, purplish-brown, bill pale brown, feet brown (with a purplish cast in one speci-
men), or, Q grayish-brown. Weight ¢ 161, 164, 169; 9 144, 145, 149 g.

None of the females were in breeding condition.

Papuan names: Hollandia Bay, “Yokwa,” upper Tor River, “Kuruwai.”

Epimachus meyeri albicans (van Oort)

Taken in the Ilaga and Baliem from 7500 to 10,500 feet in the former area and an
unknown altitude in the Baliem. All our specimens are young. No fully adult black
males were seen, though the long black tail feathers were a feature of headdresses. Pre-
sumably adult black males are rare as a result. One male, of a general blackish cast of
color, the dark olive-brown feathers invaded with black, especially on the wings and tail

LIST OF THE SPECIES 49

and with a black, metallic forehead patch had slightly enlarged gonads. Presumably birds
breed at two to three years of age, and this plumage represents such an age class. The
blackish shaded feathers of this plumage are difficult to describe. The whole bird appears
dark, almost as if melanin granules were invading the feathers in a living progression.
It is an all over-shading which must increase gradually with successive moults.

Another male taken August 18 is a young bird with soft, disintegrated plumage on
the lower belly and vent, the top of the head fluffy and the tail feathers in sheath. The
bill is short (61), some two-thirds the length of an adult bill.

Wing ¢ 178; @ 150-157. Soft parts: iris ¢ 9 blue (brown in juvenile), bill black, gape
yellow, feet ¢ black, @ brownish black, grayish brown, juv. 6 blackish gray. Weight
2 160; 164, 175 g.

Grand Valley Dani name, “‘malabecok.”

Astrapia splendidissima helios Mayr

The commonest paradise bird in the Ilaga, and one apparently not in local demand
by the tribal people. The species was most common in the patches of forest found at
7500 feet but rarer above. One specimen was taken at 9000 feet. In color our adult males
match helios though perhaps somewhat more richly purple on the back. Two adult males
taken August 20 and 25 are moulting the head and chest feathers. Another male is a
juvenile bird taken August 19, the feathers of the breast and lower underparts still downy
and the bill rather short.

Wing ¢ ad. 131-136; subadult ¢ ¢ 134-140; 92 128-131 (138 = 6°). Soft parts: iris
dark brown, bill black, feet gray, grayish-black, dark gray. Weight ¢ 130-149, 6 subad.
125-138, 2 114-135 g.

Dani name (Ilaga), “tekena;” Uhunduni, “degen.”

Lophorina superba feminina Ogilvie-Grant

A rare bird in the [laga but rather common in the Baliem, although males were dif-
ficult to secure. Young males seem to differ from females only in slightly larger size.

A single, sex indet. bird from the Ilaga at 8400 feet had iris brown, bill black, feet
brownish black; weight 75 g.

Dani name (Ilaga), ‘‘teten,” (Baliem), “‘terel ha;’’ Uhunduni, “‘yel.”

Pteridophora alberti alberti Meyer

A single female from 7500 feet is our only record of this species which is said by the
Danis not to occur in the Ilaga, but to be found lower down to the north.

Wing 110. Soft parts: iris brown, bill black, gape and lining of beak bluish-green
(sea green), feet brownish-black, pads dull yellow. Weight 74 g.

Dani name (Ilaga), “wigelo;” Uhunduni, “tat” (presumably derived from one of the
notes of the species).

Cicinnurus regius rex (Scopoli)

Fairly common in high jungle on Misool. A male was in body moult in February.
A young male in brownish female plumage with reddish wing edges was taken January 3.
One morning in a thicket I sat waiting, hoping to see Paradisea which was calling nearby,
only to find myself staring into the eye of a King Bird of Paradise about six feet away.
The bird was entirely concealed except for its eye and the dull velvety blackish tuft of
feathers over the eye which raised and contracted itself as I watched. The bird disap-
peared as silently as it had arrived.

A female had: iris brown, bill horn color, gape chartreuse, feet purplish-blue.
Weight 58 g.

Cicinnurus regius similis Stresemann

A male from the Tami River was in breeding condition July 2.

Soft parts: iris brown, bill yellow, feet prussian blue, deep blue, 9 iris brown, bill
brown, feet prussian blue. Weight ¢ 50, 52, 2 57g.

50 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

Diphyllodes magnificus chrysopterus Elliot

Found by us only at Bodim. Males were in breeding condition on their display
grounds in late July and early August. A typical dancing ground was elliptically shaped,
some twenty feet long and ten wide, the saplings throughout well cleared of twigs and
leaves. In the center the ground was cleared of leaves and debris in a circular area. The
calls are very loud as noted by Rand (1940), “cree cra cra cra.”

Wing ¢ 110-116, 2 106-116. Soft parts: iris brown, dark brown, bill pearl gray,
grayish-blue, blue-gray, inside of bill jade green, feet deep blue, dark blue. Weight 4
95-103, 2 84-100 g.

Paradisea minor minor Shaw

Paradise birds were calling loudly and males collected by us were in breeding condi-
tion from 30 June on the Tami River to 27 July at Holtekong. Where birds were going
into moult by mid-July in the Hollandia Bay area, the breeding season was prolonged a
month or more late, and it would obviously be late August before adult moult was in
progress 120 miles west on the Tor and Boe Rivers. A non-breeding young male was
moulting the head and neck feathers July 27. A female was moulting the throat feathers
and primaries October 10 at Poee. At Bodim on July 27 I hid in the underbrush
under an enormous Ficus tree and watched two male birds of paradise with yellow
plumes posture and dance on one of the upper horizontal branches. Several white-
breasted birds flew actively about and were alternately chased by one or other of
the full-plumaged males. I had no way of ascertaining if there were young males,
but the chasing could easily have been of young males being warned off by the older
birds. Most of the calls were the loud somewhat musical “whick” variety, interspersed
with churrs and growling notes as the birds bustled busily back and forth from limb to
limb.

Wing ¢ 181, 186.5, 2 157, 159. Soft parts: iris yellow, bill and feet ¢ bluish-white, to
bluish gray, @ bill gray, feet gray, purplish gray. Weight 4 ad. 236, 257, 4 im. 229,
252, 2145 g:

Paradisea minor pulchra Mayr and de Schauensee

A single adult female of this race with granular ovaries was taken by me November 13
on Misool. The species appeared rather uncommon when we were there compared to
my first visit in 1937. Calls were heard rarely in the forest and Jusup later secured no
more specimens. Mayr and de Schauensee in their description of this subspecies (1939B,
p- 151), make no mention of the fact that the female plumage of pulchra differs con-
siderably from that of minor. The female has the hinder crown invaded with yellowish
from the nape. It is as if the crown was covered with blotting paper, in this case a deep
mahogany color, which is gradually along the back edge absorbing a yellow stain from
the yellow nape. Below, the rich mahogany stain of the throat seems to have washed off
down onto the upper breast and sides of the upper flanks as if it was a dye which had be-
gun to wash in the rain. The underparts thus are not immaculate creamy whitish from the
throat to the thighs as in adult females of minor, but suffused with this deep reddish on
the upper edges and sides of the underparts. Hartert (1930) speaks of young females of
minor as having brownish red on the lower throat and sides. This is obviously a transi-
tion towards P. rubra of Waigeu, in which the adult female is brownish-red in color all
over the lower breast and abdomen, having retained only a dull golden yellow upper
breast ring, a continuation of the golden-yellow collar. If young minor show a tendency
to this, perhaps these island subspecies represent the retention of more juvenal stages
of plumage.

Similarly on the upper parts pulchra, in the invasion of yellow onto the hind crown,
shows a cline in color towards the crown of the female of P. rubra in which the whole
hind crown is sharply demarcated, golden yellow.

Wing ? 160; soft parts: iris yellow, bill bluish-white, feet grayish brown; weight 180 g.
This female appears to be a considerably heavier bird than minor from the mainland.

LIST OF THE SPECIES 52

Paradisea rubra Daudin

Four females were taken on Waigeu near Mingalon in September, none in breeding
condition, nor in moult.

Wing 158, 165, 166, 167.

PTILONORHYNCHIDAE, Bower-BirpDs

Ailuroedus buccoides geislerorum Meyer

This spotted catbird makes a prolonged harsh churring noise in the underbrush, a
most unpleasant, almost grating sound. Not particularly shy, they are expert at conceal-
ing themselves in vines or heavy epiphytes covering the branches of substage trees. None
were in breeding condition, although two males, July 7 and August 2, had slightly en-
larged gonads.

Wing $4 120-131, 9 124-130. Soft parts: iris red, dull red; bill white, gray, feet
gray, bluish gray, greenish gray (twice). Weight 6 6 127, 134, 135, 9 2 132, 133, 135 g.

Ailuroedus crassirostris misoliensis Mayr and de Schauensee

A male taken on Misool November 16, is renewing the central rectrices. Wing 164.5,
tail 140 (moult); culmen 35. This specimen is not as large in wing and bill as the type
(1939C, p. 152), although the tail is longer than others measured of the mainland form
or of the type.

Soft parts: iris red, bill white, feet gray. Weight 233 g.

Archboldia papuensis papuensis Rand

Two males were taken in the Ilaga at 9400 and 12,000 feet on September 6 and 9.
The bird from 12,000 was taken at its bower and had slightly enlarged testes. Both birds
have glossy black crowns, glossy velvet edges to the feathers of the back and scapulars,
and both have traces of the deep golden yellow feathers coming in in two areas, the
forehead, where the tuft of feathers occur as shown in Sutton’s frontispiece plate in Mayr
and Gilliard (1954), and the posterior crest which consists of narrow, depressed feathers.
These birds measure: Wing 157 (2); tail 147, 157; depth of tail fork 17, 29, culmen 25, 27.
Weight 170, 175 g. Soft parts: iris reddish brown (amber), brown, bill black, feet bluish-
gray.

The finding of these two specimens shows that typical papuensis which ranges from
the Oranje Mountains, Lake Habbema and the Bele River west to the Nassau Range
(Ilaga) and the Weyland Mountains (Wissel Lakes), has an adult male plumage with a
crest similar in development to that of sanford: from Mount Hagen and Mount Giluwe.
All previous specimens from Netherlands New Guinea have been males in less well-de-
veloped stages of plumage. A fully-crested male still remains to be secured. Whether such
a bird will have a much longer, more forked tail and slightly longer wings remains to
be discovered. If so it may well be that this species is monotypic, for otherwise the cited
subspecific differences are not compelling.

The bower of one of these males, according to my assistant Jacob, whom I had asked
to be particularly on the lookout for it, consisted of two walls of interlaced twigs about
two feet six inches apart and eighteen inches high. At each end there was a small collec-
tion of pieces of charcoal and blackish fruit. The center space was bare earth. There were
no shells or other ornaments. There were no ferns nor vines as described by Gilliard
(1959). The whole space was approximately three feet square. This bower fits much more
the description of the avenue-builders and suggests that this species may be closer to
Chlamydera than to the Amblyornis assemblage.

Amblyornis macgregoriae mayri Hartert

A single male was taken in the Ilaga. This male is subadult, lacking the crest
feathers, which are used among the Dani commonly as an ornament, especially on the

52 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

woven cane jackets used in warfare. This may well be the reason for the rarity of this
species.

Wing 135, culmen 25. Weight 145 g. Soft parts: iris brown, bill, upper mandible
brown, lower pale greenish-brown, feet dark gray.

Dani name (Ilaga), “kwaaja;’”’ Uhunduni, “atibec.”

Chlamydera cerviniventris Gould

Found around Sentani Lake at Poee and Ifaar in areas of tall grass. One male is
marked as having enlarged gonads in mid-October.

Local Papuan name, “norkumnor.”

CAMPEPHAGIDAE, Cuckoo-sHRIKES

Coracina caeruleogrisea strenua (Schlegel)
Found commonly in the Baliem Valley. No moult or breeding indications.
Wing ¢ 169, 171, 177, 2 168-178.

Coracina boyert boyert (Gray)

My first experience with this species came at Bodim, July 28, when a large mixed flock
of small cuckoo shrikes and a few other species was surprised feeding in substage trees on
the edge of a village. The steep ridges and hog-backs of the locality prevented me from
more than fleeting glimpses of the flock as they flew energetically from tree to tree. A pair
of adults were collected which proved to be this species. ‘The flock kept up a shrill and
continuous series of whistles and warbles as they worked through the trees.

Wing ¢ 126, 2 124; weight ¢ 65, 2 62g.

The male is moulting new primaries and primary coverts.

Coracina papuensis melanolora (Gray)

Three specimens from the Moluccas are interesting as one, a male from Batjan, is in
fresh plumage with enlarged gonads, October 1. The second, an adult female from
Halmahera, is in the midst of body and wing and tail moult, September 8. The third, a
young male from Batjan, is moulting out of barred plumage into the first nuptial or first
alternate plumage, September 26.

None of our other specimens from Misool or Kofiau show breeding activity or moult
in January or May. Two November birds from Misool, however, are adults in body
moult, indicating that the moulting season may extend later in Misool than the Moluccas
to the west.

Wing 6 ad. 150, 151, $ subad. 145, 9 146-151.5; weight ¢ 84, ¢ subad. 76, 2 82,
84 (2) g.

Coracina papuensis papuensis (Gmelin)

A subadult male in very worn plumage was taken September 22 at Poee correlating
well with the equivalent subadult male from Batjan mentioned under the preceding
subspecies. This smaller, darker, black-browed form was found in open woods near
Sentani Lake and on Hollandia Bay.

Wing ¢ 137, 147, 3 subad. 142, 9 137; weight 2 75g.

Coracina longicauda grisea Junge

Found by us only in the Ilaga from 7500 to 9000 feet. A silent forest bird; none of
our specimens being in breeding condition or moult.
Wing 3 168-170, 2 157, 168; weight ¢ 90, 95, 100, 2 80, 98 g.

Coracina tenuirostris miilleri (Salvadori)

A male moulting out of barred immature plumage was taken at Bodim, July 30,
and an adult female from Holtekong in late September.

LIST OF THE SPECIES 53

Wing ¢ im. 115, 2 130; weight ¢ im. 59 g. A male and a female immature of the
race gray? from Batjan weighed: ¢ 64, 9 55g.

Coracina morio incerta (Meyer)

A single not quite adult male with a few brownish-edged and white-tipped greater
primary coverts was taken in September on Waigeu.
Wing 110, culmen 23.5.

Coracina schisticeps schisticeps (G. R. Gray)

A male was taken on Misool in late November. In contrast to the published descrip-
tions of schisticeps, the two central tail feathers are broadly tipped with black to a
width of 22 mm along the central shaft, rather than with a central subterminal shaft
spot. In this specimen the throat is dark slaty gray.

Wing 114, culmen 20.5; weight 47 g.

Coracina schisticeps reichenowt (Neumann)

A series of birds from Bodim from 26 July to 5 August include two adult males, one
with a subterminal black spot on the two gray central tail feathers, the other with a
broad black band (15 mm along the shaft in worn tail feathers), as in the specimen of
schisticeps noted above. Another young male is moulting from brown into gray plumage,
with newly grown individual gray feathers among the wing coverts and on the upper
breast and belly. One male, July 26, is very worn. Both males have black-washed throats
and the female has a chestnut brown crown.

Wing ¢ 114, 118, 2 104; weight ¢ 48, 49, 6 im. 44, 9 46 ¢.

Coracina melaena melaena (Lesson)

Found from Arar on Sele Strait east to Humboldt Bay with no sign of moult or
breeding activity in June, July, August or December. One female from Sentani, July 16,
has a few pale-tipped primary wing coverts remaining of juvenal plumage.

Wing ¢ ¢ 118, 118.5, 2 9 117, 120, 122; weight ¢ 50, 55, 2 50, 53, 63 g.

The female with the longer wing and heavier weight comes from Sele Strait. In its
slightly larger size and in the tendency to paler coloration this specimen appears to ap-
proach the subspecies batantae (Gyldenstolpe and Mayr) in Gyldenstolpe (1955B), a
form apparently overlooked by Mayr in his section of the Campephagidae in Check-list
of Birds of the World (1960).

Coracina montana (Meyer)

A pair from the Baliem were taken in November. Wing ¢ 135, 2 133.
Grand Valley Dani name, “telu.”

Camphochaera sloetit sloetit (Schlegel)

A male from Poee on Lake Sentani extends still farther east the range of this beautiful
Golden Cuckoo shrike. Rand (1941) had recorded the species from Bernhard Camp on
the Idenburg River, an extension which was unfortunately overlooked in the Check-list
of Birds of the World (1960). Although he cites slight differences in the brightness of
plumage of his specimens compared to birds collected earlier by Jusup Khakiaj and
myself in the Vogelkop, I cannot see that these differences are really significant and con-
sider this a uniform population. Wing ¢ 105. One of our Vogelkop specimens now at
Yale (noted in Mayr and de Schauensee, 1939B) with a slightly less intensely-colored
rump, but no appreciable other differences, has a wing measurement of 104.

Lalage atrovirens atrovirens (Gray)

Birds from Misool, the type locality, and Arar on Sele Strait, were collected in Novem-
ber, December and January. One November and one December bird appear to be in
rather worn plumage. A December 3 male from Arar has slightly enlarged gonads. Addi-
tional specimens were taken east to Lake Sentani.

Wing ¢ ¢ 95-98, 2 94-96; weight ¢ 30-32, 9 32-38 g.

54 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

MUSCICAPIDAE, OLp Wor tp INSECT-EATERS
TIMALIINAE, BassLers

Melampitta lugubris rostrata Ogilvie-Grant

Three females of this obscure skulking chat-like babbler were taken in dense beech-
podocarp moss forest from 7500 to 11,000 feet in the Ilaga. One specimen weighed 45 g.

Wing @ 86, 87, 89; tail 55, 56, 57: culmen 20.5, 21 (2).

It would appear from the measurements of specimens published at various times that
it is just possible to separate two populations of this species in New Guinea. Typical
lugubris of the Arfak Mountains of the Vogelkop appears to be small; wing ¢ Q 78-85,
tail 43-53. The race rostrata was named by Ogilvie-Grant on the basis of a single male
from the Utakwa River on the southern slope of the central chain as having a longer cul-
men, 24 mm. Rand’s series (1942) were said to have shorter bills as were the specimens
measured by Mayr and Gilliard (1952) in creating their subspecies, longicauda. The meas-
urements, however, of eastern birds as compared with western Vogelkop birds would seem
to be just tenable, (measurements from published sources):

Vogelkop, males and females

wing tail culmen
lugubris 78-85 43-53
type of rostrata 89 52 24
central mountains 83-95 51-67 20-22

Unfortunately many of these publications such as that of Mayr and Gilliard (cbid.)
leave much to be desired in the incompleteness of the range of measurements (only tail
measurements are given in their publication). In addition it is unfeasible to list the
distribution of their longicauda as including part of the mountain range from which the
type of rostrata must have come (Utakwa River, 4200 feet, south slope of the Nassau
Range). Our Ilaga birds are perhaps 35-40 miles as the crow flies, northeast over the
main ridge. The Archbold Expedition specimens from the upper Idenburg and Bele
River area of the Baliem are less than 50 miles east of the Ilaga. All these speci-
mens group together in size, except for the published difference of 2 mm in culmen
length of one specimen (the type of rostrata). On this basis it seems impossible to main-
tain “longicauda” as anything more than a tendency towards a continuous cline in size.
Typical lugubris then would occur in the Vogelkop. The population rostrata would
then include birds from the Weyland Mountains east along the central chain to the
Wharton Range.

Crateroscelis murina fumosa Ripley

Compared to mainland New Guinea birds this is a small subspecies, otherwise not
greatly differing in color.

Wing 6 252.5-54; tail 6 33-35; culmen 16, 2 15 (2); weight 6 15, 2 12, 13 g.

The male bird at least makes a wren-like ‘“tchick tchick” as it scuttles and hops about
in the undergrowth.

Crateroscelis murina murina (Sclater)

Found at Bodim and along the Tami River in brush piles or dense undergrowth in
the forest.

Wing 6 2 54-60, tail ¢ 2 37-41, culmen 6 @ 15 (4); weight 2? 11,0 15g.

Crateroscelis robusta sanfordi Hartert

A common species in forest in the Ilaga. Also taken in the Baliem. One male, August
31, has enlarged gonads.

Wing ¢ 2 58-68; weight 19-21, 25 (1) g.

LIST OF THE SPECIES 55

Androphobus viridis (Rothschild and Hartert)

Some ten specimens of this rare, inconspicuous mountain olive-green babbler are
known in collections. We secured a pair in early September in the Ilaga in mountain
forest without unfortunately hearing any calls or other life history attributes of the
species. Neither bird was in breeding condition or showed signs of moult. The male’s
distinct black bib and white moustache is replaced in the female with a grayish wash over
the olive-green.

Wing ¢ 68, 2 64.5; tail ¢ 70, 9 67, culmen ¢ 15, 9 14. Weight ¢ 32, 2 29 g.

The legs and feet of these birds were grayish-brown in life.

Ptilorrhoa caerulescens caerulescens (Temminck)

A male from Misool confirms the existence of this species on that island. I saw the
bird on a trail in heavy forest in a patch of sunlight and was struck by the brilliance of
the blue plumage. Our specimen shows wing moult in February.

Ptilorrhoa caerulescens neumanii (Mayr and de Schauensee)

A juvenile moulting into adult plumage and an adult were collected at Bodim July 31
and August 1.
Weight © ad. 52, © juv. 49 g.

Ptilorrhoa leucosticta centralis (Mayr)

A pair and a juvenile were taken in the Ilaga in late August-early September. The
juvenile, taken August 20, is warm brown above, a few russet feathers appearing on the
back and rump, and with a brownish-black tail. The wing spots are isabelline rather
than white. Below, the plumage is frayed and fluffy, olive-brown in color with white on
the center of the belly. A few white feathers are beginning to appear in the auricular
region.

Wing ¢ 81, 2 75; weight 3 44, 2 46, juv. 36 g.

Orthonyx temminckit dorsalis Rand

An immature post-nestling from the Ilaga is just moulting out the tail September 10.
It is buffy brown above and below with broad black edges to the back feathers and nar-
rower black edges below. The female of August 31 is also moulting the tail feathers.
Wing 83; weight 65 g.

Pomatostomus isidori isidort (Lesson and Garnot)

A male in breeding condition and a female with ovaries granular were taken on
Misool November 13 and 20. This species flocks as do babblers and scimitar babblers in
Southeast Asia, flying one after the other clumsily into tangles of vines in the substage
forest, churring and chuckling to each other as do their Sundaland relatives. One non-
breeding female is moulting on the throat November 13. A single specimen from Waigeu
has already been reported on (1957).

Wing ¢ 115, 2 109-118; weight ¢ 73, 81, 9 61-81 g.

Additional specimens taken at Bodim and the Tami River on the north coast might
as well be istdori except for one rather dark specimen from Holtekong with a strong
tendency to calidus. Following Rand (1942) I call these all istdori. Two males from the
Tami are in breeding condition June 30 and July 3, and another from Holtekong Sep-
tember 23. If these specimens represent two different cycles, regression and reconstitution
of the gonads must be very rapid. Two birds from Bodim and the Tami River July 4 and
26 are immatures with short bills and rather frayed-appearing plumage.

Wing ¢ 108, 110, 116; weight 72, 82 g.

Tfrita kowaldi brunnea Rand

A single immature female from the Ilaga at 8500 feet, taken September 7, gives me
no clue as to the status of this subspecies which Junge (1953) doubted on similarly

56 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

slender grounds. This bird was not long out of the nest though capable of flying. But the
underparts, which are sandy buff color, except on the flanks, are soft and fluffy. The
nape only is blue.

Soft parts: iris blue, bill dark brown, lower mandible and tip of upper mandible
orange brown, feet yellowish olive. Weight 22 g.

TURDINAE, THRUSHES

Saxicola caprata belensis Rand

A large series of this chat was obtained in the Ilaga and the Baliem where it is com-
mon in tall grass near cultivation, or in bushes near open trails. ‘There is no difference
in size or color between the two populations. Birds just out of the nest were collected
in late August and early September. A male moulting into adult black plumage was
collected in mid-August. Other males with traces of brown flecking on wing coverts and
lower breast were taken in March. A female with granular ovaries was taken in mid-
August.

Wing ¢ 76.5-82 (79.9), 2 75-80 (78); weight ¢ 22-28, 2 25-28, g (moulting into
adult plumage) 30 g.

Saxticola caprata aethiops (Sclater)
A male from Ifaar on Lake Sentani, July 17. Wing 70.

Amalocichla incerta olivascentior Hartert
A single female from the Ilaga agrees in color with Baliem birds. Wing 79; weight 38 g.

MALURINAE, WREN-WARBLERS
Malurus alboscapulatus aida Hartert
Males in breeding condition of this little black wren-warbler were taken in June, July
and October in the Humboldt Bay area along the Tami River and near Lake Sentani.
A young male taken in September has splotched black and white underparts and a white

throat. A September female is in very worn plumage.
Wing ¢ é 46-48, 9 45.5; weight ¢ 10 ¢.

Malurus alboscapulatus randi Junge

A single male obtained from Dani hunters by Miss O’Brien in the Swart Valley
proves in its measurements to belong to the subspecies randi described by Junge from the
Wissel Lakes.

Wing 52, tail 43.

Swart Dani name, “bininggatlok.”

Malurus alboscapulatus balim Rand

Collected in the Baliem Valley and the Ilaga up to 7500 feet. A February female is
very worn and a male is moulting the rectrices in March. No secure data on breeding
was obtained.

Wing ¢ 6 51-52, 2 48; tail ¢ 50, 52, 9 56; weight ¢ 15g.

Todopsis cyanocephala cyanocephala (Quoy and Gaimard)

Our specimens from Sele Strait east to the Tami River confirm that dohertyi is not
a form worthy of recognition. This beautiful blue fairy-wren was erratically distributed
in secondary scrub or bush-jungle in coastal areas, although we met with it as far inland
as Bodim. Males in breeding condition were encountered in September and October,
and birds with apparently regressing gonads, granular ovaries and somewhat enlarged
testes, were taken in December on Sele Strait in company with a well-grown juvenile.
The juvenile, a female, has a black cap, soft powder-blue tinted tail with white tips, dull

LIST OF THE SPECIES 57

chestnut back, and below possesses a white throat and white-washed buffy brown under
surface, the white extending over the breast and abdomen.

A male moulting into adult plumage was taken July 8, presumably a bird just under
a year old.

These birds skulk in thick bushes, make a “tschik” alarm note. The song is short
but effective, ending in a whip-lash-like phrase. A nest with four young in a bush about
three feet from the ground was gourd-shaped, made of strips of fern, dead leaves in
strips, and pieces of moss, all closely woven together. The entrance hole was on the
side and the nest was closed above.

Wing 6 6 59-62, 99 54-57; weight ¢ 14, 16, 2 10 (non-breeding), 14 (ovaries gran-
ular) g.

Todopsis wallacii Gray
A pair were taken on Misool in March. Wing ¢ 46, 2 47.5.

Chenoramphus grayi (Wallace)

This beautiful pale blue fairy wren keeps to similar undergrowth and bushes as
Todopsis, but was met with by us only at Bodim in original forest. In the still jungle
after heavy rain, we would occasionally see these birds darting like babblers from bush
to bush, sometimes on the ground, especially on exposed tree roots, often calling, a low
chittering “cheep, cheep.”

Wing 6 59, 9 55-58; tail ¢ 60, 2 51-56; culmen ¢ 19, Q 17-18.5; weight ¢ 14,
© 12-15 g.

Clytomytas insignis oorti Rothschild and Hartert

This rare hill wren warbler was found in forest in the Ilaga. One female had
granular ovaries August 26, and a male of the same date had slightly enlarged gonads.
Perhaps these were birds with regressing gonads, as September birds showed no trace
of breeding condition.

Wing 2 58, 60, 2 56, 60. Weight 4 13, 14, 9 12, 14 (ovaries granular) g.

SYLVIINAE, Grass WARBLERS

Acrocephalus arundinaceus australis (Gould)

Occasionally found in dense grass along the edges of small streams or thick scrub
growing on wet marshy places in the Ilaga. No breeding activity noted. One male, Sep-
tember 9, was moulting body plumage and the fully-developed rectrices had traces of
sheath.

Wing ¢ 68, 70, 2 65; tail 3 61 (worn), 2 61; culmen ¢ 19-20, 9 18. Weight
é 19 (moult), 22, 23, 9 17 ¢.

Megalurus timoriensis macrurus (Salvadori)

Taken in the Ilaga, the Baliem and the Swart. A juvenile female from the [aga was
collected September 7. The bird has a notably brownish, not rufescent crown, with broad
black streaks, and is strongly washed with yellow below with warm buffy flanks and black
shaft flecks on the feathers of the lower neck. The black back streaks become more pro-
nounced with wear. A worn specimen from the Baliem has a pale, brownish crown and
traces of a yellow wash on the throat. Two males, taken September 1 and 10 are in
breeding condition although a female of similar date is not. Perhaps this is a stage of
gradual post-nuptial regression. The birds were singing on high grass stems, and, as
always, difficult to approach. On one occasion I watched a grass-warbler scuttle mouse-
like on the ground through a patch of cultivated sweet potato plants.

Wang) 6 (7/4; 17.0, 9)167; tail 61:97.5;/98; 9 95: Weight 6: 305,35, 2 29, 9 juv.. 34g.

Ilaga and Swart Dani name, “lijok;” Uhunduni name, “wingol,” “‘tjoukoulbouc.”

58 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

Cisticola exilis diminuta Mathews

A series of twenty-one grass warblers from the Lake Sentani area, up to 4500 feet in the
Baliem and west Baliem Valleys (including Bokindini), inclines me to feel that the name
polionota Mayr (1934, New Britain) should not be used for the lowland birds of the
north coast as suggested by Rand (1942). None of our specimens differ significantly
inter se between the sea coast and the mountain valleys. Rand’s comment (ibid. p. 472)
was based on a single female from Hollandia.

Juveniles in strongly yellow-washed plumage were collected in the Baliem in March,
and a juvenile with washed-out, pale yellow underparts was taken at Sentani in mid-
July. A male in fresh plumage with slightly enlarged gonads was taken at Bokindini in
mid-August.

Wing 6 6 46-48, 9 41, 42.5.

Sericornis spilodera spilodera (Gray)

An unobstrusive warbler of deep thickets in heavy jungle near Bodim. A male, August
3, had enlarged gonads, although our females showed no sign of breeding activity.

Wing ¢ 60 (2), 2 52, 55; soft parts: iris brown, bill pinkish brown, feet brown,
grayish-brown. Weight é 11, 2 10, 12 g.

Sericornis beccarii cyclopum Hartert

Found at Bodim and in the scrub-covered foothills in back of Hollandia harbor.
Wing 6 56, 56.5, 9 53.5; weight $ 14 (2) g.

Sericornis nouhuysi nouhuyst van Oort

The commonest warbler in the Ilaga; also found in the Baliem, in heavy forest. An
immature bird taken August 27 is virtually indistinguishable from the fuscous adults,
only duller, less rufous above and below, with a short thin bill and much shorter wing.
A March male from the Baliem was in breeding condition.

Wing ¢ ¢ 61-66, 2 2 59-65; weights $ 19-25, 9 14-20, im. 13 g.

Sericornis perspicillatus Salvadori

Not uncommon in the Iaga and Baliem where we found them in clumps of casuarinas
or bushes often on the edge of village clearings. They darted actively through the foliage
making soft seeping noises. Two adult males were in breeding condition August 23 and
September 12, and a female had granular ovaries August 23.

Wing ¢ 4 51-56, 9 51-55; weight 4 2 9-14 g.

Sericornis papuensis biirgersi Stresemann

A less common species than the preceding, but also found in the Ilaga in a variety of
habitats including trees and bushes in the open as well as forest. One juvenile not long
out of the nest was taken August 25. It has dark tips to the crown feathers giving a
squamated appearance. The whole underparts are olive yellow, particularly bright on
the throat. A second juvenile taken September 6 is less brightly colored, but also yellow-
ish (is the yellow color perhaps rather transitory, fading as the bird develops and becomes
more active?). ‘he only buffy color on the underparts is on the undertail coverts.

Soft parts: iris dark brown (‘reddish-brown in one female”), bill dark brown, base of
the lower mandible pale brown to brownish-yellow to white, feet dull yellow to pale
brown, legs brown.

Wings ¢ 2 54-57; weight 10-11 (juv.) 9 g.

Gerygone cinerea Salvadori

Two males, one in breeding condition August 25, were taken in the Ilaga at 7500
feet. They were both in casuarinas and open clumps of trees near villages, mixed with
small flocks of feeding Sericornis species. Both birds have traces of dark terminal spots
on the white throat feathers.

Wing 51, 53; weight 9, 11 g.

LIST OF THE SPECIES 59

Gerygone chrysogaster chrysogaster Gray

A common warbler at Bodim, also found near Humboldt Bay, always in thick substage
forest. Males in breeding condition were taken in July and August, but all females
secured were not breeding.

Wing ¢ 53-54.5, 2 49-53; weight 7-11 g.

Gerygone chrysogaster notata Salvadori

A female from Tamulol, Misool is our only record of this differently colored form.
Compared to chrysogaster this subspecies is more bronzey-brown with a yellowish wash on
the throat and yellow edges to the greater wing coverts.

Soft parts: iris dull red, bill upper mandible black, lower whitish flesh, feet pale
grayish flesh; wing 51; weight 7 g.

Gerygone chloronota cinereiceps (Sharpe)
A pair in breeding condition were taken December 5 at Arar on Sele Strait.
Soft parts: iris red, bill black, feet blackish gray; wing ¢ 49.5, 2 44.5; weight 6 (2) g.

Gerygone palpebrosa wahnest (Meyer)

This is a difficult species to see or to collect. These small warblers seem to occur in
flocks of less than ten individuals, moving quietly in the dense epiphytic covering of
isolated trees in clearings or in the tops of the evergreen canopy. By chance an encounter
at a feeding tree is as much as a field naturalist can hope for. At Bodim we saw several
small parties of these warblers from which I collected one pair. The males’ black throat
is visible under proper light conditions for a good distance. No signs of breeding or moult
in early August.

Soft parts: iris red, bill black, feet 6 blackish-brown, Q dark gray.

Wing ¢ 51, 2 50; weight ¢ 12, 9 9g.

Gerygone magnirostris occasa Ripley
A single specimen taken on Kofiau has already been reported (1959B).

Gerygone magnirostris conspicillata (Gray)

A female of this brown form with buffy-colored chest collar was taken at Arar Decem-
ber 5, in the very tall mangroves lining the shore.

Wing 54; weight 9.

Gerygone magnirostris affinis Meyer

A much paler, more grayish, less brownish form than the preceding subspecies, found
by us in high casuarinas on the beach at Holtekong in early July. The warblers had a
soft call. One male was in breeding condition.

Wing ¢ 52-54 (4); weight 9-11 g.

Gerygone ruficollis insperata De Vis

As Gyldenstolpe reported for his Wahgi Valley birds (1955A), we met this species in
the Ilaga in small parties in occasional trees on the edges of cultivation, twittering and
nervously active. Our Ilaga birds are similar to Baliem specimens taken by Jusup
Khakiaj. Males were in breeding condition in the Ilaga August 21-September 8, and
Jusup has marked one specimen March 22 as in breeding condition (?). Subadults with
a yellow wash on the underparts were taken in late August in the Ilaga.

Wing ¢ 55-58.5, 9 56-59; weight 6 6 (1), 10 (4), juv. 9 5g.

Phylloscopus trivirgatus giulianettii (Salvadori)

Said to be breeding in the Baliem in March; our Ilaga birds are non-breeding. No
moult or wear was observed. These warblers have a long drawn-out series of single
whistling notes on a descending scale, rather pretty but mournful. The notes remind me
of the song of a North American white-throated sparrow, Zonotrichia.

Wing ¢ 55-60, 2 52-54; weight $ 7, 2 8-10g.

60 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

MUSCICAPINAE, FLYCATCHERS
Peltops blainvillii (Lesson and Garnot)
Found on Misool and at Bodim on forest edges, usually solitary, hawking for insects

from an exposed tree. One November male (Misool) is in very worn plumage.
Wing ¢ 95-97, 2 90; weight ¢ 29-35, 9 34g.

Peltops montanus Stresemann

A male adult from the Ilaga and a juvenile just out of the nest from the Swart, the
latter taken in late summer (August presumably) are our only specimens.

Wing ¢ 111; weight 70 g.

Swart Dani name, “nelawit.”

Rhipidura threnothorax threnothorax Miiller

Taken on Misool (Ripley, 1959B) and near Hollandia on the Tami and at Holtekong
in heavy forest. Late June and July males were in breeding condition and in rather worn
plumage. The Misool bird (November 14) was also in breeding condition and in fresh
plumage, hence somewhat darker and more richly colored on the upperparts.

Wing 77.5-81; weight 19 (3) g.

Rhipidura leucothorax leucothorax Salvadori
A male from Sentani Lake has a wing of 80 and weighed 20 g.

Rhipidura rufidorsa rufidorsa Meyer

Common on Misool and seen twice at Bodim in mixed feeding flocks in primary
forest. Our Bodim specimens are paler than Misool birds on the upper back and on the
chest. Rand (1938B) had previously noted the variability of color within the typical
forms. Misool males were in breeding condition in November and January. One Misool
male (November 13) has almost completed renewing the rectrices.

Wing ¢ 64-67, 2 60-63; weight 9-13 g.

Rhipidura brachyrhyncha devist North

A small series includes one of Mayr and Rand’s (1937, p. 164-168) Type II birds and
3 Type I. The latter has the rufous tail, broadly barred black, the former the grayish
tail with white shafts. One male with the Type I tail, broadly barred black, is so rufous
above and below that it appears almost like a hybrid with R. atra. However, the wing
coverts are dark brown with rufous edgings as in brachyrhyncha, not all rufous as in the
female of atra. It would be valuable to study these two species to determine whether on
occasion hybrids may occur. No specimens were breeding. This was a common bird of
dense forest from 7500-8000 feet.

Wing ¢ 70,71, 2 67, 68; weight $ 9-14, 2 10, 11g.

Rhipidura atra atra Salvadori

Common in the Baliem, but only one female secured in the Ilaga. Moulting birds
were taken in February. One young male is moulting into the black plumage.
Wing ¢ 74-78, 2 71-73; weight 2 10 g.

Rhipidura hyperythra miillert Meyer

Found only at Bodim, one male in late July had enlarged gonads while the rest of
our series showed no breeding indications. One male is subadult in late July and has
very slightly enlarged gonads.

Wing ¢ 78, 2 73-76, 0 79, subad. ¢ 71; weight 10-15 g.

Rhipidura albolimbata albolimbata Salvadori

The commonest fantail flycatcher in the Ilaga. Individual males and females were in
breeding condition or not in breeding condition between August 19 and September 3,
and juvenile specimens just post-nestling and fully on the wing were taken August 29

LIST OF THE SPECIES Gi

and 31. The juvenile has warm brown patches on the back and rump, brown tips to the
secondaries and brown-tipped chest and undertail coverts.
Wing ¢ 78.5-84, 2 76, 81, 0 79, 80; weight ¢ 2 10-15, juv. 9 g.

Rhipidura rufiventris vidua Salvadori and Turati
Kofiau (Ripley, 1959B).

Rhipidura rufwentris gularis Miller

Males in breeding condition were taken July 4 and 5 on the Tami River. A male
was in breeding condition on Waigeu in September, and two birds, a male and female
were in partial breeding condition on Misool in mid-November. Perhaps there is some
variation in the breeding season between the western and north coast population. A fe-
male from Misool is moulting the rectrices in February.

Wing ¢ 85-90, 2 82-86; weight $ 17 (2), 2 19g.

Rhipidura leucophrys melaleuca (Quoy and Gaimard)

The willy Wagtail was locally common in coastal areas, in breeding condition in June
and mid-October (Batjan). The Batjan date coincides with the possible later breeding
date of some birds in the western islands, west of the New Guinea mainland. The June
date (Tami River) is two months later than the April dates reported by Rand (1942)
for the Hollandia area.

Weight $ 30, 33, Q 25-28 g.

Monarcha rubiensis (Meyer)

A female from the Baliem is an altitude record for this uncommon species. Pre-
sumably taken at about 4500 feet, this bird has a few white feathers on the hind part of
the dark gray crown. A fleshy eyewattle of soft skin and a tendency to a frill makes the
separation of the genus Arses for the species telescophthalmus and insularis seem entirely
unnecessary to this author. Wing 84.

Monarcha alecto chalybeocephalus (Garnot)

This coastal species was found by us as high as 1575 feet above sea level on Batjan
(subspecies alecto). In New Guinea we met it only in heavy forest or cut-over scrub from
sea level to 400 feet above sea level. Birds were in breeding condition in November, and
in September on Batjan. One male taken in early July at Holtekong had somewhat
enlarged gonads, perhaps regressing. A young male in female plumage and a juvenile
female, both birds with dark gray rather than deep iridescent blue crowns, were taken on
Batjan September 30. The birds appeared to be paired up.

Wing ¢ 87-91 (alecto, Batjan 76-82), 2 79-81 (alecto, Batjan 76); weight ¢ 16, 25, 26
(alecto, Batjan 15, 19, 20 g).

Monarcha frater periopthalmicus Sharpe
A single specimen from the Swart Valley at 4500 feet. Swart Dani name, “pittetuk.”

Monarcha manadensis (Quoy and Gaimard)

A juvenile as well as adult females were taken at Bodim. The juvenile corresponds
to the plumage described by Rand (1942, p. 481) with the partially gray throat and
brownish wash on the breast and flanks.

Wing @ ad. 82, 2 juv. 78.5; weight 9 23, 2 juv. 21 g.

Another female from Bodim appears to be a hybrid between this species and guttula.
Above it shows the fluffy black forecrown plumes of guttula, but is much darker gray on
the upper surface, dark bluish gray with a hint of the metallic sheen of manadensis.
The wing coverts lack white spots as in guttula, also the specimen lacks guttula’s white
tips to the lateral tail feathers. Below the bird, with black throat and white underparts,
is similar to both guttula and manadensis.

Wing 78.5; weight 17 g.

62 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

Monarcha guttula (Garnot)

Common in lowland areas, often in mixed feeding parties in heavy forest. Birds were
taken in breeding condition at Bodim in late July and August, Misool in November,
and on Waigeu in September. Juvenile specimens were taken on Waigeu in September
and at Bodim August 4.

Weight ¢ 17-20, 6 15, 21, juv.o 19 g.

Monarcha julianae Ripley
The unique type and its specific relationships were discussed by me earlier (1959B).

Monarcha chrysomela melanonotus Sclater

Misool and Waigeu produced a small series of this species, specimens of which were
in breeding condition in September and November.
Wing ¢ 73-77, 2 74; weight ¢ 18 g.

Monarcha chrysomela aurantiacus Meyer
Found at Bodim. Wing ¢ 70, 72, 2 (July 26 moulting); weight ¢ 16, 22, 2 16, 18 g.

Monarcha telescophthalmus telescophthalmus (Garnot)

A male in breeding condition was taken on Misool in November. A male moulting
from juvenal into the dark adult plumage was taken at Arar December 3. The tail is
still brown as well as the lower throat and the primaries. Evidently these are the last of
the old plumage to go. A young male can be distinguished from an adult female by
having a darker cap and a more distinct nuchal ring, paler than the adjacent olive-
rufous back.

Soft parts: iris brown, ocular skin periwinkle blue, bill and feet bluish-gray.

Weight ¢ 19 (2), juv. ¢ 19, 2 20 g.

Monarcha insularis (Meyer)

Breeding birds of both sexes were taken in July, August and September. A juvenile
from Bodim, July 29, has down feathers on the vent area and pale-tipped feathers on
crown, back and wing coverts.

Wing 6 75-80, 2 75-77; weight 6 18-20, 9 19, 20g.

Machaerirhynchus flaviventer albigula Mayr and de Schauensee

Found at Bodim where males were in partial breeding condition in late July. This
is a form with a whitish rather than yellow throat in the female and immature plumage.
Wing ¢ 58-60, 2 57, 58; weight 10-12 g.

Machaerirhynchus nigripectus saturatus Rothschild and Hartert

Of the two males and a female taken in the Ilaga, one male, August 20, is in breed-
ing condition.

Wing ¢ 65, 68.5, 2 63.5; weight 6 10, 14, 9 12 ¢.

Eugerygone rubra saturatior Mayr

This rare little Ruddy flycatcher is recorded for the first time from the Nassau Range.
Both our Ilaga birds were brought in by Dani hunters. The male, not in breeding
condition, is moulting into the reddish plumage, most of the back feathers being warm
brown with pale shaft streaks. The underparts are warm buffy brown throughout with
occasional white feathers along the angle of the mandible on the left side only. The
other specimen, unsexed, is presumably a female, a brown cap being followed by an
olive-green back, and dull grayish white underneath, the flanks and thighs being warm
brown.

Soft parts: feet (¢) orange, legs brown, (2) brownish yellow, legs dark brown. Wing
é 57, 2 60; weight ¢ 11, 2 9g.

Ilaga Dani name, “kelelambo.”

LIST OF THE SPECIES 63

Microeca flavovirescens cuicut (De Vis)

A common flycatcher in the substage on Misool and at Bodim, these greenish-yellow
birds were a feature of the mixed feeding flocks. Two males were in breeding condition
August 6 at Bodim, and mid-November on Misool.

Wing 6 77-82, 2 73-80; weight ¢ 14-19, 2 12-18 g.

Microeca papuana Meyer

Males of the montane yellow flycatcher were in breeding condition in the Ilaga in
early September. One juvenile differs from adults in having pale yellow tips to the
greater primary and secondary wing covert, secondaries and a few of the lateral flank
feathers, and in having pointed tips to the rectrices.

Wing ¢ 75-80, 2 73, 77; weight 14-15 g.

Monachella miilleriana miilleriana (Schlegel)

Found in the Swart Valley.
Swart Dani name, “pippingganggun.”

Petroica bivittata caudata Rand

A single unsexed bird from 12,000 feet on the Ilaga plateau belongs to this race ex-
tending the known range for caudata to the Nassau Range. This is the sixth known
specimen of this subspecies, four having been collected by the Archbold Expedition and
one by Versteeg in the Hubrecht Mountains. Wing 69.5; weight 9 g. It is worth noting
that the black legs and feet contrast with yellow pads.

Poecilodryas brachyura dumasi Ogilvie-Grant

Taken at Bodim in low substage and bushes in dense jungle.

Soft parts: iris dark brown, bill black, feet ¢ whitish brown, brownish gray, 2 flesh
color. Wing 6 76, 78, 2 74, 75; weight 6 21, 30, 2 25 (2) g.

Poecilodryas hypoleuca hypoleuca (Gray)

A pair were collected on Misool, the male having slightly enlarged gonads in mid-
November.
Wing 3 79, 2 70; weight ¢ 21, 2 17g.

Poecilodryas hypoleuca hermani Madarasz

A loud whistled call in the undergrowth in dense forest marked this species of which
we only secured males on the Tami River and at Bodim.

This is a definitely more blackish form than typical hypoleuca, more purely white
on the underparts, with a wider, more prominent white streak from the lores to over the
eye.
Wing 76.5-79; weight 21, 24 g.

Poecilodryas albonotata grisetventris (Rothschild and Hartert)

Found in forest in the Ilaga, a new record for the Nassau Range. One female has a
few individual juvenal brown feathers scattered on the wings, flank and thigh. ‘Two
males have enlarged gonads August 27 and September 1.

Wing ¢ 112, 114, 2 102, 104; weight ¢ 38, 40, 2 30, 39 g.

Ilaga Dani name, “kanili.”

Peneothello sigillatus quadrimaculatus (van Oort)

A few specimens from the Ilaga were seen in dense forest from 8000 to 11,000 feet.
One male had enlarged gonads August 29, and a streaked-brown juvenile with soft, fluffy
underparts and dull blackish-brown back and pointed rectrices was taken August 31.

Wing ¢ 106 (2), 2 108, 0 111. These measurements run larger than those of Rand, but
hardly significantly so. Weight 28-33 g.

64 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

Peneothello cryptoleucus albidior (Rothschild)

A pair of this obscure sibling species was taken September 3 and 7 in the Ilaga in
the same habitat as cyanus at 7500 feet. This is a considerable eastward extension for
the species. The lower abdomen feathers are terminally dull, whitish gray.

Wing ¢ 89, 2 86; weight ¢ 19g.

Peneothello cyanus atricapilla Hartert and Paludan

Found in the Baliem at 4500, and in the Ilaga from 7500 to 9000 feet above sea level.
Males were in breeding condition from 23 August to 13 September. One female (none
of which showed enlarged gonads) has some streaked brown feathers on the throat and
flanks.

Wing ¢ 90-93, 29 84-87; weight ¢ 25-31, 9 24-30 g.

Pachycephalopsis poliosoma balim Rand

A series were collected near Wamena in the Baliem. One March male is recorded
as in breeding condition. In general these birds appear slightly darker than balim in the
American Museum collection, but these skins may have faded slightly. They agree with
Rand’s measurements for balim.

Wing 3s 104-108, 2 100-108.

Grand Valley Dani name, “nabulak,” “wenabulak.”

PACHYCEPHALINAE, WHISTLERS OR THICKHEADS

Pachycephala pectoralis balim Rand

Very common at the 4500 foot level from whence we have a large series. Males taken
in February are noted as being in breeding condition. An immature bird taken in
November has a rusty brown head, wing coverts, flanks and throat. A nestling was taken
in November. It is allover warm brown, about the size of a babbler, Crateroscelis
sanfordi, covered with down and pinfeathers.

Wing 3 86-92, 2 78-91.

Grand Valley Dani name, “hokan.”

Pachycephala schlegelii viridipectus Hartert and Paludan

Common in forest in the Ilaga from 7500 to 11,000 feet. Males were in breeding
condition in late August and early September. One young male, September 4, is in com-
plete female plumage with no trace of juvenal brown feathers.

In the female plumage there is considerable variation in the degree of lightness or
darkness of the throat patch, some individuals having much less heavy banding on the
throat. Immature birds patched with brown, from nearly all over, to mere flecks on the
breast or crown, were taken from mid-August to mid-September throughout the altitudinal
range. One such male, the most heavily suffused with brown had slightly enlarged gonads.

Wing 6 85-90, 2 84-88; weight ¢ 21-30 (25), 2 20-29 g.

Ilaga Dani name, “wuttunoo.”

Pachycephala lorentzi Mayr

Specimens of this little-known sibling species were taken in the Ilaga at 7500 feet.
As Rand explains (1941), males and females are similar in general to the female of
P. schlegelii, but lack the green chest band, the gray of the lower throat shading into the
greenish-yellow of the upper abdomen. In addition the bill is smaller and more slender.
One male was in breeding condition August 29.

Wing 3 82.5-86, 2 81-83; culmen 14-15. In schlegelit the culmen runs from 15-16,
but is noticeably stouter in proportion. Weight 18-24 g.

Pachycephala simplex griseiceps Gray

A pair were taken on Misool.
Wing ¢ 76, 2 78; weight 9 24 g.

LIST OF THE SPECIES 65

Pachycephala simplex jobiensis Meyer

This form from the northeast coast of Geelvink Bay east to Astrolabe Bay is larger,
more olive-toned above and brighter yellow below, especially on the vent. Found in
coastal swamps as well as deep forest. One immature female taken August 5 at Bodim has
the secondaries edged with dull rufous.

Wing 6 2 78-89; weight 22-26 g.

Pachycephala phaionotum (Bonaparte)
Two females from Kofiau are our only record of this mangrove or beach scrub species.

Pachycephala monacha dorsalis Ogilvie-Grant

Two males and a female of this rare species were taken near Wamena in the Baliem
whence it has not previously been recorded. The Archbold Expedition failed to find it
in forest at mid-altitudes (i.e. 4500 feet).

Wing ¢ 85.5, 86.5, 2 85 (moult).
Unfortunately Jusup failed to date these specimens, thus preventing a pinpoint on the
moult of the female.

Pachycephala rufinucha niveifrons Hartert
A dense thicket species in the Ilaga from 7500-8000 feet. A juvenile male (September
10) is all brown with pale shaft streaks on the head and wing coverts and a few white
feathers coming in on the throat and mid-breast. The buff undertail coverts are downy.
Wing 2 86; weight 44, 45 g.

Myiolestes megarhynchus misoliensis Meise
In Misool found in heavy underbrush near clearings. A male taken November 13 is
in breeding condition. These birds are richly warm-buff below and warm-olive-brown

above.
Wing ¢ 89, 94, 9 87; weight ¢ 39, 2 37g.

Myiolestes megarhynchus idenburgi Rand

A single specimen from the Swart Valley appears to belong to Rand’s form described
from the Idenburg River to the east. Wing 98.

Myiolestes megarhynchus hybridus (Meise)

Collected at Bodim and east to the Tami River in heavy forest. Males were in breed-
ing condition in July.

Wing ¢ 93,97, 2 89, 93; weight 6 45, 9 39g.

Pitohut kirhocephalus uropygialis (Gray)

Common in heavy forest on Misool, some evidence of breeding was found in mid-
November. One male was in breeding condition and a female had granular ovaries. Two
females were in moult at the same season, presumably young birds of the year. Both
have noticeable dark brownish streaked feathers on the crown.

Wing ¢ 120, 124, 9 119; weight ¢ 97, 105, 2 93, 2 (juv.) 95, 103 g.

Pitohui kirhocephalus meyeri Rothschild and Hartert

I agree with Rand (1942) that proteus Hartert cannot be maintained. Our series from
the Tor River east to the Tami contains all minor gradations of color which might
otherwise be thought to separate these forms. ‘his is an intermediate gray headed popula-
tion showing considerable variability in the coloration of the back and the intensity of
the underparts. On the Tami River in late June and early July we found males in
breeding condition, perhaps just post-breeding season, as a full-grown nestling was col-
lected with well-developed wings but downy underparts and tail feathers in sheath.

This species has a pleasant variety of musical, rather thrush-like calls, as well as
harsh jay-like alarm notes.

Wing ¢ 102-112, 9 101-109; weight ¢ 9 67-85, nestling 60 g.

66 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

Pitohui dichrous dichrous (Bonaparte)

A single unsexed juvenile specimen from the Swart Valley.
Swart Dani name, “kiwula.”

Pitohut ferrugineus ferrugineus (Bonaparte)

Common on Misool throughout heavy forest. This can be an elusive bird in spite of
its size, hiding in vines which often completely cloak the trunk of mid-stage trees. Birds
were in moult in January and February.

Wing ¢ 133-147 (140.5), 2 137 (2); weight ¢ 97,112, 2 92, 96 g.

Pitohui ferrugineus heurni Hartert

A male in breeding condition from Bodim in late July is showing some moult around
the head as is a female August 4, and another bird from Hollandia in mid-September.
These birds seem very close in color to typical ferrugineus although to me at least they
appear darker than holerythrus from Japan and darker and more rufous than clarus.
I merely follow Rand (1942) in assigning them to heurnt.

Wing 6 133, 2 136, 0 136; weight ¢ 99, 2 102 g.

NEOSITTIDAE, AusTRALIAN NUTHATCHES

Daphoenositta miranda frontalis van Oort

Two specimens were taken on the plateau west of the Ilaga Valley at 12,000 feet.
They were together, evidently a pair, and were high up in a patch of moss forest trees
in a small gully in the tundra-like plateau.

Soft parts: (0 = ¢) iris dark brown, bill black, feet grayish brown, (0 = 9) iris pale
yellow, bill black, base of lower mandible gray, feet orange yellow.

Wing (c= ¢) 86; weight (0 = ¢) 14, (0= 9) 12g.

Ilaga Dani name, “geenabe;’’ Uhunduni, “imoutip.”

Not previously recorded from the Nassau Range.

CERTHIIDAE, TREE CREEPERS

Climacteris placens inexpectata Rand

This is a slightly variable population, the forehead of several of these specimens being
slightly darker than inexpectata, approaching steini. In the gray tone of the rump and
tail, however, as well as in general tone of coloration, these birds are very close to Rand’s
race from Mount Wilhelmina. Our specimens were not in breeding condition nor did they
show signs of moult.

Wing 6 89, 2 80-83; weight ¢ 12, 2 16-18 g.

MOTACILLIDAE, WacrTAILs
Motacilla cinerea caspica (Gmelin)

Found on Waigeu and in the Swart and Baliem Valleys. Our specimens weighed
from 16 to 20 grams.

Motacilla flava simillima Hartert

Two specimens of this Wagtail from Waigeu taken in October, 1955, make the third
record for this species in New Guinea which has been found previously only on the
Mimika River and at Jeflio south of Sorong (Gyldenstolpe, 1955B).

NECTARINIIDAE, Sunpirps

Nectarinea sericea mariae Ripley

Kofiau Island, (Ripley, 1959B). This is a well-marked form, the male with a strongly
violet throat, the female intermediate between the pale auriceps and the darker cochrani.

LIST OF THE SPECIES 67

Nectarinea sericea cochrani Stresemann and Paludan
A female from Misool is paler above and below than typical sericea.
Wing 51; weight 9 g.

Nectarinea sericea sericea Lesson

Found at Arar and on Humboldt Bay. Two young birds with dull greenish-gray
throats were taken in July and a male just beginning to assume iridescent plumage on
the sides of the throat and mid-back, December first. Adults and juveniles weighed 9-10
grams and the youngest July juvenile 6 grams.

Nectarinea jugularis frenata (Miiller)

Collected on Kofiau, Misool, Waigeu and on New Guinea from Arar east to Humboldt
Bay. These birds were found in village gardens, scrub and forest edges usually fairly
near the sea. Breeding condition males were taken in January, April and October. A
juvenile male not long out of the nest was taken at Poee in September, and a well-
grown juvenile male was collected on Misool in December.

Wing ¢ 6 53.5-58; weight ¢ 9, 2 9, 9.5 g.

MELIPHAGIDAE, HoneEy-EATERS
Timeliopsis griseigula griseigula (Schlegel)

Found at Bodim and on the Tami River in substage trees, well up from the ground.
There is a certain variation in the orange-brown to dull ochre-brown wash on the under-
parts, and the olive-brown to more warm-brown color of the upper surface. Males were
in breeding condition in late July to August 4, presumably the end of a breeding season.
The only female was not in breeding condition. One male, August 2, appears to be a
juvenile, resembling the adult in color, but smaller in all proportions.

Wing ¢ 95-98, 9 91; weight ¢ 37-43, 2 34 ¢.

Timeliopsis fulvigula montana Mayr
A male from the Ilaga, August 31, extends the range of this form to the Nassau

Mountains.
Wing 77; weight 22 g.

Glycichaera fallax poliocephala Salvadori
A pair of this small brightly colored form from Misool in November shows no sign

of breeding activity.
Wing 660, 9 61; weight ¢ 11, 9 12g.

Glycichaera fallax fallax Salvadori

Found at Bodim, where a male in breeding condition was collected July 29, and
also in the Humboldt Bay area. Poee males had enlarged gonads in October and two
juvenile birds with soft gapes were taken in July and October.

Wing ¢ 62, 65, 66, 2 60; weight ¢ 12, 18, 2 11 (2)g.

Oedistoma pygmaeum pygmaeum Salvadori
A female from Poee October 5 is our only record of this uncommon species. Wing 42.

Myzomela eques eques (Lesson)

Found on Misool and at Arar. The Arar female, December 5, is in breeding condition.
A November 20 male on Misool is coming into breeding condition.

Wing 3 70.5, 2 59, 60; weight ¢ 16, 2 12, 12g.

Myzomela eques primitiva Stresemann and Paludan

Males of this weakly-defined subspecies found at Bodim were coming into breeding
condition in early August. We also secured an immature bird August 1 with paler colora-

68 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

tion below and a dull reddish wash on forehead and cheeks as well as a poorly defined
gular streak. Two specimens at Bodim August 1 and 5 are in heavy moult. Presumably,
then, this late July-early August period marks the conclusion of nesting, beginning of
moult, whereas in western New Guinea and adjacent islands breeding comes several
months later.

This species was active at flowering trees of all sorts, feeding on the fig species in the
substage with flowers as well as fruit growing out of the tree trunk, as well as large
canopy trees such as the Myrtaceae.

Wing ¢ 68-71, 2 59, 60; weight ¢ 15-17, (juv. 6) 18, 2 15g.

Myzomela nigrita meyeri Salvadori

A single male with slightly enlarged gonads was taken at Bodim in a flowering tree
August 5, along with M. eques.

Wing 61; weight 11 g.

Myzomela rosenbergit rosenbergii Schlegel

Extremely common in the forest up to 8400 feet. Males were in breeding condition
in the Ilaga in late August up to September 9 although females were not, leading us to
suppose that the nesting season had recently finished. This was substantiated by the
presence of juvenile birds taken September 2 and 4. Unfortunately, although Jusup
Khakiaj collected a large series in the Baliem, his data is inadequate so that we cannot
date correctly the moulting birds and immature birds in the series. Among them a male
is said to be in breeding condition in March.

Wing ¢ 62-65, 2 58.5-61; weight ¢ 9-14, 9 10, 14g.

Grand Valley Dani name, “husinak.”

Toxorhamphus novae-guineae novae-guineae (Lesson)

Near flowering trees in heavy forest this honey-eater was locally common. Once or
twice I heard them make chittering noises when other birds were in the vicinity, perhaps
a threat or warning call. Males were in breeding condition on Misool November 11, 12,
and a female with granular ovaries was taken November 22. At Bodim males and females
were similarly in breeding condition in early August, although by no means universally so.
Of four males at Bodim only one had slightly enlarged gonads. Of three females only one
had granular ovaries. Some moult (presumably post-breeding) was present on Misool in
November, at Bodim in August.

Wing ¢ 67-71, 2 55-59; weight $ 11-14 (13), 2 9-12 (10.5) g.

Toxorhamphus iliolophus iliolophus (Salvadori)
Males were in breeding condition in August at Bodim, and slightly so at Poee in
October, but no females were in breeding condition at this time, presumably late in the

season for these birds. Some head moult was occurring in mid-October.
Wing ¢ 62-64.5, 9 59-60; weight $ 9 12-14 g.

Melilestes megarhynchus stresemanni Hartert

Two females were taken in bird nets in heavy forest at Bodim. One, August 2, is
in wing moult.
Wing 2 93; weight 36, 37 g.

Melipotes fumigatus goliathi Rothschild and Hartert

Found commonly in the Ilaga forest and the Baliem from 4500 to 7500 feet. Some
males were in breeding condition August 23-27, but no females were in breeding condi-
tion, and nestlings and juveniles were secured so that this is evidently the end of the
nesting season. Nestlings and juveniles are more uniformly gray below without the dis-
tinctive chest band or paler edges to the abdomen feathers. September birds were very
worn.

LIST OF THE SPECIES 69

Soft parts: iris brown, ocular skin orange-yellow, bill black, feet dark gray, (nestling
or juvenile) greenish-black to black, pads dull yellow. Wing ¢ 115-125 (121), 2 108-116;
weight 6 58-77 (67), 2 50-59 (55) g.

Melidectes nouhuyst (van Oort)

A male in breeding condition and two females were taken in low scrub above the
forest at 11,000 feet on the plateau west of the Ilaga. In comparing with Paramythia and
Pachycephala, these birds were in worn plumage, moulting in new rectrices on Septem-
ber 5.

Soft parts: iris dark brown, ocular skin yellow, bill and feet black. Wing ¢ 133, 2 122,
W25:5.

First record for the Nassau Range.

Melidectes belfordi kinneari Mayr

I follow Rand (1942) in assigning the Ilaga population to kinneari, although as Junge
(1953) points out, there is considerable variation in bill size between the Utakwa and
Oranje Mountain birds. This species of large honey-sucker was far more scarce in the
forest of the Ilaga than Melipotes or Ptiloprora, although it occurred up to 10,700 feet,
nearly the range of nouhuysi. However, it is a forest bird, of the substage, and surprisingly
inconspicuous considering its jay-like size and querulous, rasping call. All our specimens
are out of breeding condition and several are in worn plumage, renewing rectrices or
remiges in late August. A juvenile female agrees well with the plumage description of
Mayr and Rand (1937) for the nestling of belfordi. In general the plumage is similar to
the adult but with less defined pattern, i.e. less or no edgings to the feathers of the back
and underparts. The moustachal streaks are present but reduced, and there is a trace of
seal-brown on the rump.

Soft parts: iris brown, ocular skin violet blue, lower eyelid yellow, yellowish-green or
greenish yellow (in the juvenile the ocular skin is greenish), bill black (there is a yellow
gape in the juvenile), feet ¢ brownish-gray, Q brownish-gray to dark gray to blackish-
brown (juvenile, brown). Wing ¢ 134-147.5, 2 130-138; weight $ 59-73, 2 51-56, juv. 49 g.

Ilaga Dani name, “aionga.”

Melidectes torquatus mixtus Rand

Very common in scrub and forest edges in the Baliem. Birds were in moult in March.
A juvenile bird (no date) is colored similarly to the adult.

Wing 6 118-126, 2 109-118.

Swart Dani name, “‘nggwigok.”

Oreornis chrysogenys van Oort

This is an uncommon mountain honey-sucker being known only from three specimens
in Leyden taken by Lorentz and Versteeg, and twelve in New York from the Wilhelmina-
Habbema area taken by the Archbold Expedition. We secured a pair in the Ilaga in
mountain forest clearings and scrub at 8000 feet. The gonads of the male were slightly
enlarged, but both birds were in slightly worn plumage and presumably going into
post-breeding moult. Sexual dimorphism in size is pronounced as the following measure-
ments show:

Wing 6 144, 9 126.5; tail 6 137.5, 9 123; culmen $ 27, 2 25; weight $ 77, 962 g.

Of necessity this species had not previously been recorded from the Nassau Range.

Oreornis subfrenatus melanolaema (Reichenow)

Although Rand (1942) suggested that Weyland Mountain birds should probably be
separated from those of the Oranje Mountains, Junge (1953) did not follow this up,
and I am inclined to agree that the color of the upperparts is subject to considerable
variation. Two females taken August 22 show no sign of breeding activity or moult.

Wing 94, 96.5; weight 30, 33 g.

70 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

Xanthotis chrysotis austera Ripley
Found on Misool (1957), a pair have wing measurements of $ 96, 2 92, and weighed
6 29,) 938 &.

Xanthotis chrysotis meyeri Salvadori

This large dark honey-eater was common in heavy undergrowth from Bodim east to
Humboldt Bay. There seems to be considerable variation in the lightness or suffused
quality of the dark olive-brown back, but the crown of all these specimens is very
blackish. Below there is some tendency to faint fulvous or grayish tips to the breast
feathers. Otherwise the throat is grayish and the rest of the underparts dark buffy-brown.
The orange-gold auricular patch is variable in size, paler or darker, sometimes almost
absent.

Males were in breeding condition at Bodim the end of July, but no females were in
similar condition and other specimens at the same time were moulting the rectrices.
A female was moulting flight feathers at Poee in October. A specimen was brought in to
Miss O’Brien in the Swart Valley in August.

I cannot see the necessity of maintaining the race philemon Stresemann.

Wing 4 98-106, 2 94-100; weight 3 47-54, 2 40-45 g.

Swart Dani name, “lawlomambangga.”

Xanthotis polygramma kuehni Hartert

A rather brightly colored form with a prominent yellow ear patch and a narrow but
distinct sub-ocular black stripe. The head feathers are dull greenish-olive with darker
shaft lines and white tips on the nape. There are moderately broad yellow edges to the
back feathers. Found high up in heavy forest on Misool. A male was in breeding condi-
tion in January.

Soft parts: iris dark brown, ocular skin orange-yellow, auricular area pinkish flesh,
bill black, feet gray. Wing ¢ 71, 76; weight 20 g.

Xanthotis polygramma poikilosternos Meyer

Two specimens from Bodim probably belong to this subspecies. Both have somewhat
greenish-olive crowns, but reduced edging to the back feathers, small yellow auricular
patches and a dull yellowish wash on the underparts shading to fulvous on the flanks.
Iredale (1956) has introduced the genus Mundavis for the species polygramma, unneces-
sarily I believe.

Wing 2 70.5,0( = 6) 75; weight 9 19,0(= ¢) 25¢.

Swart Dani name, “nggin.”

Meliphaga virescens sonoroides (Gray)

This inhabitant of coconut plantations, usually on offshore islets, is the familiar
New Guinea larger honey-eater to most visitors to New Guinea, being tame and ubiquit-
ous wherever found. Two specimens from Kamoa Island in the Schildpad group near
Misool where I first encountered the species in 1937, and a female from Jarsoen, one of
the Podena Islets east of Sarmi, leased by Mr. Foerster, one of the veteran copra planters
of the New Guinea coast, comprise our series. No specimens are breeding, but one male
from Kamoa is in moult in February. Wing ¢ 110, 2 98.

Meliphaga aruensis sharpei (Rothschild and Hartert)

Males with enlarged gonads were taken in late June and October in the Humboldt
Bay area, and on Misool in late November. However, no females were in breeding condi-
tion. At Poee and Holtekong birds were in very worn plumage and commencing moult
in late September and October. Long yellow auricular tufts and stout bills characterize
this species found as high as the Swart Valley.

Wing ¢ 73-93 (80), 2 71-87 (76); culmen ¢ 18.5-21.5; weight $ 22-28, 9 21-29 g.

Swart Dani name, “luwutga.’

LIST OF THE SPECIES 71

Meliphaga analoga analoga (Reichenbach)

Found on Misool and Waigeu as well as Bodim and the Hollandia area. Males were
in breeding condition in January and November (western islands), and June 29 and
August 4 on the Tami River, and at Bodim. No females were in breeding condition, and
no specimens were in moult.

Wing ¢ 79-83, 2 74-82; culmen 6 22-24; weight 6 22-25, 9 19, 22 g.

I am grateful to Dr. Salomonsen for aid in identifying part of this series which I find
difficult to separate from aruensis in general. The impression of a longer, more slender
bill and reduced auricular tuft, seem to provide the main criteria for separating these
forms in the hand. I find no field characters by which to do so.

Ptiloprora meekiana occidentalis Rand

Two females from the Ilaga at 7500 feet extend the range of this subspecies west to
the Nassau Range. This species was locally uncommon.
Wing 76, 77.5; weight 20, 21 g.

Ptiloprora erythropleura dammermani Stresemann and Paludan

A single male from the Baliem was collected by Jusup Khakiaj December 1, 1961. The
specimen is moulting the rectrices. Wing 84.

Ptiloprora perstriata lorentzi (van Oort)

As Gilliard and Lecroy have reiterated (1961), it is probably wiser to keep the species
perstriata and guisei separate, as the ranges may well overlap in the central mountains of
western Papua. Our specimens from the Ilaga are typical Jorentzi and were secured be-
tween 7500 and 7800 feet. The species undoubtedly ranges at least 1000 feet higher. Some
males still had rather enlarged gonads between August 23 and 27 although going into
wing and tail moult. Greenish-colored immatures were collected between August 19 and
September 9. These birds had soft pale gapes and one juvenile, September 6, is not long
out of the nest.

Soft parts: iris green, grayish-green, yellowish-green, jade green, greenish-gray, juv.
brown, bill black, feet bluish-gray, gray, juv. grayish-brown.

Pycnopygius stictocephalus (Salvadori)
Three specimens worn and moulting were taken at Arar December 3, and at Poee

September 30 and October 15. All were in secondary scrub forest.
Wing 97, 100, 107; weight 2 41 g.

Pycnopygius cinereus marmoratus (Sharpe)

A pair from the Baliem (where it was not met with by the Archbold Expedition)
include a male with enlarged gonads in March. Apparently an uncommon species every-
where it occurs. Wing ¢ 101, 2 100.

Pycnopygius ixoides proximus (Madarasz)
Two males were taken in thickets in heavy forest at Bodim July 26 and August 1.

The August specimen is in moult. Both have some gonadal enlargement.
Wing ¢ 88, 93; weight 26, 31 g.

Philemon meyeri Salvadori

Males had somewhat enlarged gonads at Bodim in late July and early August. No
females showed sexual activity. By September birds from Hollandia were in heavy moult,
although individual birds in late June and July were moulting the rectrices or remiges.
Thus moult would appear to occur irregularly in late June and July, becoming pro-
nounced by September.

Wing ¢ 106-110, 2 102 (im.)-104; weight ¢ 46-52, 9 46-49 g.

72 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

Philemon novaeguineae novaeguineae (Miller)

Taken on Misool and Waigeu. A Misool male is in breeding condition in February,
although the wing feathers are being replaced.

Soft parts: iris light brown, bill black, feet black, pads dull yellow.

Wing 150-154, 2 132; weight 6 162 g.

Philemon novaeguineae jobiensis (Meyer)

Breeding birds, both male and female were taken July 19 and August 11. Other
individuals not in breeding condition, taken in July and September, are in moult.
A nestling with a dark brown throat was taken at Wamena (no date), a new record for
this altitude. Apparently the species is spreading in cultivated areas into the mountain
valleys.

Wing ¢ 146-159, 9 145-156; weight ¢ 150, 2 120g.

DICAEIDAE, FLOWERPECKERS

Dicaeum pectorale S. Miiller

Found on Misool, Kofiau Island (the specimen was mislaid and unreported in my
1959B paper on the island), Waigeu and at Arar on Sele Strait. The Kofiau record is
new for that island. Misool males and females were in breeding condition November 24,
25. Found in scrub as well as heavy forest.

Wing ¢ 48-50, 9 47 (2); weight 6 2 6-7 ¢.

Dicaeum geelvinkianum diversum Rothschild and Hartert

Collected at Bodim and Poee. A juvenile bird with an orange bill with black tip was
taken at Poee in October. Two of the Poee birds are in body moult.
Wing 6 50-54, 2 47.5 (2), 48; weight 9 7 g.

Dicaeum geelvinkianum centrale Rand

Found on the Ilaga and in the Baliem. An Ilaga male was taken in dense forest at
7500 feet, making a characteristic ‘‘tick tick” call. The bird was in breeding condition
September 8. In the more greenish color of the back it shows a relationship to g.
obscurifrons Junge from the Wissel Lakes. A Baliem juvenile was taken in March, and a
male was said to be in breeding condition in February. A February female is in ex-
tremely worn plumage. Perhaps this species has two nesting cycles in the central moun-
tains.

Wing ¢ 55-58, 2 52-54; weight 6 7g.

Melanocharis nigra nigra (Lesson)

A single male, iridescent black above, olive-gray below, was taken on Misool Novem-
ber 25. I noted the testes as somewhat enlarged. In my experience these are birds of scrub
and heavy undergrowth, near flowering or fruiting trees, often fig species, betraying
their presence by clicking calls.

Wing 61.5; weight 12 g.

Melanocharis nigra unicolor Salvadori

Breeding condition males were collected on the Tami River and at Bodim from June
30 through July. No females were in breeding condition and presumably this was the end
of the season, as a juvenile with body down was collected July 29 at Bodim. One Bodim
male of the same period has traces of olive feathers among the black underparts.

Wing ¢ 60-63, 2 60, 62; weight $ 9-12, 9 11 (2) g.

Melanocharis versteri meeki (Rothschild and Hartert)

Taken in the Ilaga in heavy forest from 7500 to 8000 feet. Several were taken in
bird nets very low near the forest floor. A young male is indistinguishable in its plumage
from females.

——

= iene en

LIST OF THE SPECIES 73

Wing ¢ 62, juv. ¢ 66, 2 67-72; weight 6 14, juv. ¢ 19, 2 18-21 g.
Salomonsen (1960) places this species in Melanocharis rather than Pristorhamphus.

Melanocharis striativentris axillaris (Mayr)

Salomonsen (1960) also combines striativentris in Melanocharis rather than Neneba,
although the streaked underparts and lack of sexual dimorphism set this species well
apart from its congeners. Three specimens, one somewhat juvenile in appearance with a
pale gape (no date), were taken in the Baliem from whence the Archbold Expedition
failed to meet the species. A male is in moult in February. Wing ¢ 71.5, 2 72.

Paramythia montium alpinum Salomonsen

In the Ilaga this species was common from 8000 to 12,000 feet, particularly in the
alpine zone of scrub where clumps of bushes or low trees occurred scattered through open
heath. A juvenile bird, largely gray below, though with a black throat and pale, whitish-
yellow underparts, was taken September 9. Breeding birds were taken in early September
including a female with enlarged ova in the ovary. These specimens agree with the upper
size limit of the Mount Wilhelmina series collected by Rand and his colleagues (1942) and
therefore agree with the altitudinal subspecies montium proposed by Salomonsen (1961).

Wing 86 6 112-120 (115.2), 99 2 104-117 (108.8) Salomonsen (op. cit. 1961) gives the
following measurements for alpinum, the larger form found above 2200-2500 meters
(7216-8200 feet) in the Oranje Range: Wing 86 6 114-123 (116.8), 72 2 108-120 (113.7).
Thus our Nassau birds are slightly below the lower range for alpinum as well as the
average of measurements, but the overlap is very great.

Weight ¢ 50, 54, 55, 9 45-50, 61 (1).

Ilaga Dani name, “gila;” Uhunduni, “elep.”

ZOSTEROPIDAE, WHITE-EYES
Zosterops fuscicapilla fuscicapilla Salvadori

Collected in the Ilaga, Swart and Baliem Valleys. Small flocks of a dozen or so birds
were often noticed in the Ilaga from 7000 to 8000 feet in scrub and eucalyptus-like trees
round village settlements, occasionally in the tall casuarinas which lined paths or stood
near houses. One September bird appears rather pale, grayish-olive below and may be a
subadult bird. The black is slightly less pronounced on the head. A male is said to be in
breeding condition in February. A fledgling was taken in the Swart in September.

Wing 6 57-60, 2 57-61; weight 2 13 (2) g.

Swart Dani name, “inolygena.”

PLOCEIDAE, WEAVER FINCHES
Erythrura trichroa sigillifera (De Vis)

Two specimens were taken in the Ilaga. The male is curiously stained with blackish
about the head, wing coverts and throat. Gyldenstolpe (1955A) noted this condition in a
few of his Nondugl specimens. Perhaps this is an effect of wear. The male, September 12,
has very worn remiges.

Wing ¢ 59.5, 2 (?) 61.5; weight 6 15, 2 (?) 15g.

Ilaga Dani name, “uliwu” or “kuliipu.”

Lonchura tristissima calaminoros (Reichenow)

Found on the Tami River and at Bodim in Papuan gardens, moving through clumps
of cassava and other bushes. Rather shy and difficult to approach. On the Tami we found
a nest (Plate II), hanging from the tip end of a rattan palm (Calamus sp.). The nest was
about three feet in total height with an overhang porch roof over an entrance in the
mid-area of the pear-shaped base, about three inches across. Local Papuans report that up
to three weaver finches roost in such a structure at night (perhaps parents and one

74 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

young?). A juvenile female with light tips to the greater wing coverts was collected July 1
and adults in heavy moult were taken August 1 and 6.
Wing ¢ 48,0 50; weight 0 10, 9 im. 10g.

Lonchura grandis destructa (Hartert)

Found in cane brakes and tall grass near Lake Sentani. Small flocks of six or eight
would sometimes cross the road from one patch of cane or lalang to another, stopping
for a moment on a swaying stem. None were nesting in July and August, and one
July and one August specimen are in very worn plumage.

Soft parts: iris brown, bill gray, pale bluish-gray, feet slate, grayish-blue. Wing ¢ 9
54.5 (2), others worn; weight 2 13, 16 g.

Lonchura spectabilis mayri (Hartert)

One male is in breeding condition August 11, and a juvenile male was taken the
same date. Otherwise our series from Lake Sentani is in non-breeding condition, nor do
any seem to be in moult, although one or two have worn remiges. Found in cultivated

areas.
Wing 6 45-47, 2 45; weight 6 ad. and juv. 10 (2) g.

Lonchura castaneothorax sharpii (Madarasz)
Two males from Sentani July 16 and 17 are in only slightly worn plumage and show
no gonadal activity. Wing 46, 47.

Lonchura teerinki mariae, subsp. nov.

Type: 6 ad. (YPM no. 76431), collected August 18, 1960 by S. Dillon Ripley at
Bokindini, 4200 feet, Netherlands New Guinea.

Diacnosis: from teerinki of the Grand Valley of the Baliem this form differs in the
adult by the darker, blackish head, rather than chocolatey-black of the nominate form,
as well as the deeper, richer color of the back. Below, these forms are approximately
similar in comparing similar specimens of equivalent date. However, the black of the
lower flanks, thighs and undertail coverts appears denser, more truly black.

In the immature plumage, Bokindini birds tend to be somewhat darker than typical
teerinki. Once the darker brown head feathers start to be replaced by the adult black,
the difference becomes striking. The black of mariae is a true black rather than choco-
latey-black.

This small finch attracted our attention flying in and out in flocks, over the palisade
of the mission station of our hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Garnet Erickson, making typical low
one-note Lonchura calls. It was not until later that I realized that this was the species
teerinki known only from the Grand Valley. Immatures in various states of change from
juvenal to adult plumage were among the flocks on August 18.

Wing 3 2 48-52.

Named for my wife, Mary Livingston Ripley.

Lonchura teerinki teerinki Rand

Common at Kurulu and Wamena. Adults and immatures in all states of plumage were
collected in February, March, August and September. An August 20 male from Kurulu
is said to be in breeding condition, as is another male in March.

Wing 62 47-52.

Grand Valley Dani name, “iburu.”

Lonchura monticola montana Junge

This species was common in the cultivated fields of the Ilaga from 7000 to 7500 feet.
Birds were eating weeds and grass seeds, flying in closely-packed flocks from field to
field, or perching in lalang grass, or trees near cultivation. These specimens are similar
to Wilhelmina birds, but many have straw-edged rectrices, a character not noted by
Rand. The black band also is variable in extent. Many of our birds, but not all, have

EUS ROR, TEE as: 2h CLES 75
darker breasts than Wilhelmina birds, more blackish heads without the brown ear coverts,
and heavier, coarser barring on the flanks. These characters, however, seem to vary too
much in series to warrant separation of the population from that of the Oranje Range.

Only the brown breast in the adult really distinguishes this form from monticola
which it replaces geographically, and I can see no sound reason for maintaining two
separate species. In addition the immature plumage is very similar, our immatures have
the pale, buffy brown undertail coverts of monticola and both forms have gray breasts
as immatures. Rand (1942) lists the Wilhelmina immatures as having black undertail
coverts, evidently a later chronological stage towards the assumption of adult plumage.

Our male specimens were in breeding condition between August 18 and 27. None of the
females were in similar condition, so that I believe the season had concluded earlier.
Juveniles were much in evidence.

Soft parts: iris brown, juv. light brown, bill whitish or pale gray, juv. black, feet
gray, juv. brown. Wing ¢ 52-55, @ 51-55.5; weight ¢ 9 14-17 ¢.

LITERATURE CITED

Amadon, D.
1942A Amer. Mus. Novit. no. 1175, p. 2-3.
1942B Amer. Mus. Novit. no. 1237, p. 1-5.
Archbold, Richard, Rand, A. L. and Brass, L. Ife
1942 Results of the Archbold Expeditions no. 41, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 79,
art. 3, p. 197-288.
Bergman, Sten
1963 Observations on the early life of Talegalla and Megapodius in New Guinea,
Nova Guinea, Zoology, 17, p. 347-354.
Bock, W. J.
1956 Amer. Mus. Novit. no. 1779, p. 38, 40-41.
Brooks, Maurice
1942 Birds at the Extremities of their Ranges, Wilson Bull. 54, p. 12-16.
Chapin, J. P.
1954 The Birds of the Belgian Congo. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 75B (4), p. 142-3.
Delacour, J.
1956 ‘The Waterfowl of the World, vol. 2, p. 189-190.
Frth> EH J:
1957 Food Habits of the Topknot Pigeon, Emu 57, p- 341-346.
Gibbs, L. S.
1917 Dutch N. W. New Guinea. A Contribution to the Phyto-geography and Flora
of the Arfak Mountains, etc. London, p. 1-226.
Gilliard, E. T.
1959 The Courtship Behavior of Sanford’s Bowerbird (Archboldia sanford), Amer.
Mus. Novit. no. 1935, p. 1-18.
Gilliard, E. T. and Lecroy, Mary
1961 Birds of the Victor Emanuel and Hindenburg Mountains, New Guinea, Bull.
Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 123, art. 1, p. 1-86.
Gyldenstolpe, N.
1955A Notes on a collection of birds made in the Western Highlands, Central New
Guinea, 1951 Arkiv for Zool. ser. 2, vol. 8 (1), p. 1-181.
1955B Birds collected by Dr. Sten Bergman during his expedition to Dutch New
Guinea 1948-1949. Arkiv fér Zool. ser. 2, vol. 8 (2), p. 183-397.
Hartert, E.
1930 List of the birds collected by Ernst Mayr, Novitates Zoologicae, vol. 36, p. 18-128.
Iredale, Tom
1956 Birds of New Guinea, Melbourne, 2 v.
Junge, G. C.
1937 Nova Guinea, new ser. vol. 1, p. 150.
1953 Zoological Results of the Dutch New Guinea Expedition, 1939, No. 5, Zool.
Verhand. Rijksmus. Nat. Hist. Leiden no. 20, p. 1-77.
Kortright, F. H.
1942 ‘The Ducks, Geese and Swans of North America, p. 161-3.
Lam, H. J
1945 Sargentia, V. Fragmenta Papuana [Observations of a Naturalist in Netherlands
New Guinea] Arnold Arboretum Harvard Univ., p. 1-196.
Mathews, G. M.
1927-1930 Systema Avium Australasianarum, London, 2 v.

LITERATURE CITED a7

Mayr, E.
1937 Birds collected during the Whitney South Sea Expedition, XXXVI, Amer.
Mus. Novit. no. 947, p. 9-11.
1938 Birds collected during the Whitney South Sea Expedition, XL, Amer. Mus.
Novit. no. 1007, p. 1-16.
1940 Notes on New Guinea Birds VI, Amer. Mus. Novit. no. 1056, p. 1-12.
Mayr E. and de Schauensee, R. M.
1939A Zoological Results of the Denison-Crockett South Pacific Expedition for the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1937-38, pt. I. The Birds of the
Island of Biak, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 91, p. 1-37.
1939B Zoological Results of the Denison-Crockett South Pacific Expedition for the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1937-38, pt. IV. Birds from
Northwest New Guinea, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 91.
1939C Zoological Results of the Denison-Crockett South Pacific Expedition for the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1937-38, pt. V. Birds from the
Western Papuan Islands, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 91, p. 145-163.
Mayr, E. and Gilliard, E. Thomas
1951 Amer. Mus. Novit. no. 1524, p. 1-15.
1952 Amer. Mus. Novit. no. 1577, p. 1-2.
1954 Birds of Central New Guinea, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 103, p. 317-374.
Mayr, E. and Peters, J. L.
1960 Check-list of the Birds of the World; Campephagidae, p. 191, 196.
Mayr, E. and Rand, A. L.
1937 Results of the Archbold Expedition no. 14, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 73,
p. 1-248.
Moynihan, M.
1963 Inter-specific relations between some Andean birds, Ibis, 105, p. 327-339.
Ogilvie-Grant, W. R.
1913 Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, 31, p. 105.
Rand, A. L.
1938A Results of the Archbold Expeditions no. 19, Amer. Mus. Novit. no. 990, p. 4.
1938B Results of the Archbold Expeditions no. 20, Amer. Mus. Novit. no. 991, p. 9.
1940 Results of the Archbold Expeditions no. 26, Amer. Mus. Novit. no. 1073, p. 7-14.
1941 Results of the Archbold Expeditions no. 32, Amer. Mus. Novit. no. 1112, p. 1-15.
1942 Results of the Archbold Expeditions no. 43, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.
vol. 79, p. 425-516.
Reichenow, A.
i915 Journ: £Orn. 63, p. 127.
Ripley, S. D.
1946 Comments on Ceylon birds. Spolia Zeylanica 24 (3), p. 220-232.
1957 New birds from the western Papuan Islands, Yale Peabody Mus. Postilla
no. 31; p. 1-4:
1959A Competition between sunbird and honey-eater species in the Moluccan Islands,
Amer. Nat. 93, p. 127-132.
1959B Comments on birds from the western Papuan Islands, Yale Peabody Mus.
Postilla no. 38, p. 1-17.
1959C Birds from Djailolo, Halmahera, Yale Peabody Mus. Postilla no. 41, p. 1-8.
1960 Distribution and Niche Differentiation in Species of Megapodes in the
Moluccas and Western Papuan Area, Proc. XII International Ornithological
Congress, Helsinki 1958, p. 631-640.
Salomonsen, F.
1960 Notes on Flowerpeckers (Aves, Dicaeidae) 1. Amer. Mus. Novit. no. 1990,
p. 1-28.
1961 Notes on Flowerpeckers (Aves, Dicaeidae) 5. Amer. Mus. Novit. no. 2067,
p. 1-24.

78 SYSTEMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

Shelley, G. E.
1891 Cuculidae, in Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. 19, p. 329.
Sims, R. W.
1956 Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) Zool. 3, no. 10, p. 389-438.
Slud, Paul
1960 The birds of Finca “La Selva,’’ Costa Rica; a tropical wet forest locality, Bull.
Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 121, art. 2, p. 52-148, 90, 92, 95, 100-102, 104, 107, 112-
113.
Smythies, B. E.
1960 ‘The Birds of Borneo, p. 235-236.
Stresemann, E.

1952. On the Birds Collected by Pierre Poivre in Canton, Manila, India and Mada-

gascar (1751-1756), Ibis 94, p. 499-523.
Stresemann, E. and Paludan, K.
1932 Ornith. Monatsber 40, p. 17-18.
van Bemmel
1948 Treubia 19 (2), p. 376.
van Oort
1911 Notes Leyden Mus. 33, p. 240.

INDEX

Numbers in bold face type refer to species descriptions

Accipiter
cirrhocephalus papuanus, 18; extensions of
range, 7
melanochlamys, 17
novaehollandiae leucosomus, 17
poliocephalus, 17
schistacinus, 18
Accipitridae, 17-18

Aceros

plicatus ruficollis, 43; breeding season of, 9
Acrocephalus

arundinaceus australis, 57
Aegothelis

albertisii salvadorii, 38, 39
archboldi, 38
insignis insignis, 39
Aegothelidae, 38
Aepypodius
arfakianus misoliensis, 20
Ailuroedus
buccoides geislerorum, 51
crassirostris misoliensis, 51
Alcedinidae, 41-42
Alcyone
azurea lessonii, 41; breeding season of, 9
Alisterus
chloropterus moszkowskii, 34; breeding sea-
son of, 9
Amalocichla
incerta olivascentior, 56
Amaurornis
olivaceus frankii, 23; breeding season of, 9
Amblyornis
macgregoriae mayri, 51
Anas
gibberifrons gracilis, 15; breeding season of, 8
superciliosa pelewensis, 15; breeding season
of, 8
superciliosa rogersi, 16
Anatidae, 14-17
Androphobus
viridis, 55
Anhinga
rufa papua, 13
Anurophasis
monorthonyx, 20
Aplonis
cantoroides, 45; breeding season of, 10; ex-
tensions of range, 7
metallica metallica, 46; breeding season of,
10
mysolensis mysolensis, 46; breeding season
of, 8, 10
Apodidae, 40-41
Aramides, 23

Archboldia
papuensis papuensis, 51; breeding season of,

sanfordi, 51
Ardea, 13
pacifica, 13
Ardeidae, 13-14
Arses
insularis, 61
telescophthalmus, 61
Artamidae, 45
leucorhynchus leucopygialis, 45
maximus, 45; breeding season of, 10
Astrapia
splendidissima helios, 49
Aviceda
subscristata waigeuensis, 17
Aythya
australis australis, 16
australis extima, 16
australis gibberifrons, 16
australis innotata, 17
australis ledeboeri, 17
australis papwana, subsp. nov., 16
australis wyvilliana, 16
nyroca, 17

Bucerotidae, 43

Cacatua
galerita triton, 33; extensions of range, 7
Cacomantis, 35-36, 37
castaneiventris arfakianus, 35; breeding sea-
son of, 9
castaneiventris arfakianus
heinrichi, 35
pyrrophanus excitus, 35; breeding season of,

= weiskei, 36

variolosus infaustus, 35
Campephagidae, 52
Camphochaera
sloetii sloetii, 53
Capella
megala, 25
Caprimulgidae, 40
Caprimulgus
macrurus schillmélleri, 40; breeding season
of, 9
macrurus yorki, 40; breeding season of, 9
Casuariidae, 12
Casuarius
unappendiculatus philipi, 12
Centropus
bersteinii bersteinii, 37
menbeki menbeki, 37

80 INDEX

Certhiidae, 66
Ceyx
lepidus solitarius, 41
lepidus uropygialis, 41
Chalcites, 36, 37
ruficollis, 36
Chalcophaps
stephani stephani, 29
Chalcopsitta
atra atra, 30; breeding season of, 9
atra bernsteini, 30
duivenbodei duivenbodei, 30
Charadriidae, 24
Charadrius
leschenaultii leschenaultii, 24
Charmosyna
josephinae josephinae, 31
papou goliathina, 31; breeding season of, 9
placentis, 31, 32
placentis intensior, 32
placentis ornata, 32; at feeding trees, 7
placentis subplacens, 32
pulchella rothschildi, 31, 32; at feeding trees
7
rubronotata rubronotata, 31, 32; at feeding
trees, 7
Chenoramphus
grayi, 57
Chlamydera, 51, 52
cerviniventris, 52; breeding season of, 10
Chlidonias
hybrida fluviatilis, 25
Cicinnurus
regius rex, 49
regius similis, 49; breeding season of, 10
Cisticola
exilis diminuta, 58; breeding season of, 10
exilis polionota, 58
Climacteris
placens inex pectata, 66
placens steini, 66
Clytoceyx
rex rex, 41
Clytomyias
insignis oorti, 57; breeding season of, 10
Collocalia
esculenta erwini, 40
esculenta esculenta, 40
hirundinacea hirundinacea, 40
vanikorensis granti, 41; breeding season of, 9
Columba
vitiensis halmaheira, 28; extensions of range,
U
Columbidae, 26-30
Conirostrum, feeding behavior of, 6
Coraciidae, 43
Coracina
boyeri boyeri, 52
caeruleogrisea strenua, 52
longicauda grisea, 52
melaena batantae, 53
melaena melaena, 53
montana, 53

morio incerta, 53
papuensis melanolora, 52; breeding season
of, 10
papuensis papuensis, 52
schisticeps reichenowt, 53
schisticeps schisticeps, 53
tenuirostris miilleri, 52
Corvidae, 46-47
Corvus
fuscicapillus megarhynchus, 46
orru orru, 47; breeding season of, 10
tristis, 47; breeding season of, 10
Coturnix
chinensis novaeguineae, 21; breeding season
of, 8
Cracticidae, 44-45
Cracticus
cassicus cassicus, 44, 45; breeding season of, 9
quoyi quoyi, 45; breeding season of, 10
Crateroscelis
murina fumosa, 54
murina murina, 54
robusta sanfordi, 54; breeding season of, 10
Cuculidae, 35-37
Cuculus, 35, 37
saturatus saturatus, 35
Cynnyris = Nectarinea

Daphoenositta
miranda frontalis, 66
Dendrocygna
guttata, 14
Dicaeidae, 72-73
Dicaeum
erythrothorax, at feeding trees, 6
geelvinkianum centrale, 72; breeding season
of, 11
geelvinkianum diversum, 72
geelvinkianum obscurifrons, 72
pectorale, 72; breeding season of, 11
Dicruridae, 45
hottentotus atrocaeruleus, 45
hottentotus carbonarius, 45; breeding season
of, 10
Diglossa, feeding behavior of, 6
Diphyllodes
magnificus chrysopterus, 50; breeding sea-
son of, 10
Drepanornis
bruijnii, 48; breeding season of, 10
Ducula
basilica, 28
bicolor, 27; breeding season of, 9
myristicivora myristicivora, 27;
season of, 9
pinon jobiensis, 27
pinon pinon, 27
rufigaster rufigaster, 28
rufigaster uropygialis, 28
zoeae, 28
Dupetor
flavicollis gouldi, 14; breeding season of, 8

breeding

INDEX 81

Egretta
alba modesta, 13; extensions of range, 7
garzetta nigripes, 14
intermedia plumifera, 14;
range, 7
Eos
squamata attenua, 30
squamata squamata, 30
Epimachus
meyeri albicans, 48
Erythrura
trichroa sigillifera, 73
Eudynamys, 37
Eugerygone
rubra saturatior, 62
Eurostopodus
archboldi, 40
Eurystomus
orientalis cyanicollis, 43
orientalis orientalis, 43

extensions of

Falconidae, 18

Gallicolumba
rufigula rufigula, 29; breeding season of, 9
rufigula septentrionalis, 29; breeding season
of, 9
Gelochelidon
nilotica affinis, 25
Geoffroyus
geoffroyi cyanicollis, 34
geoffroyi minor, 34
geoffroyi pucherani, 34
Gerygone
chloronota cinereiceps, 59; breeding season
of, 10
chrysogaster chrysogaster, 59; breeding sea-
son of, 10
chrysogaster notata, 59
cinerea, 58; breeding season of, 10
magnirostris affinis, 59; breeding season of,
10
magnirostris conspicillata, 59
magnirostris occasa, 59
palpebrosa wahnesi, 59
ruficollis insperata, 59; breeding season of,
10
Glycichaera
fallax fallax, 67; breeding season of, 11
fallax poliocephala, 67
Goura
cristata minor, 2
victoria beccarii, 29; breeding season of, 9
Gymnocrex
plumbeiventris plumbeiventris, 23; breeding
season of, 8, 9
Gymnophaps
albertisii albertisii, 28; breeding season of, 9
albertisii exsul, 28

Halcyon
diops, 42
macleayii, 42

nigrocyanea quadricolor, 42
sancta sancta, 42; extensions of range, 7
saurophaga saurophaga, 42
winchelli, 42
Haliastur
indus girrenera, 17; extensions of range, 7
Harpyopsis
novaeguineae, 18
Hemiprocne
mystacea confirmata, 41; breeding season of,
9
mystacea mystacea, 41
Hemiprocnidae, 41
Henicopernis
longicauda longicauda, 17
longicauda minimus, 17
Henicophaps
albifrons albifrons, 29; breeding season of, 9
Hirundinidae, 44
Hirundo
rustica gutturalis, 44
tahitica frontalis, 44
Hydranassa
picata, 13; extensions of range, 7

Ieracidea
berigora novaeguineae, 18
Ifrita
kowaldi brunnea, 55
Trediparra
gallinacea novae-guineae, 24; breeding sea-
son of, 9

Jacanidae, 24

Lalage
atrovirens atrovirens, 53; breeding season of,
10
Laridae, 25
Larius
roratus pectoralis, 34
Lonchura, 5
castaneothorax sharpii, 74
grandis destructa, 74
monticola, breeding season of, 11
monticola montana, 75
spectabilis mayri, 74; breeding season of, 11
teerinki, breeding season of, 11
teerinki mariae, subsp. nov., 74
teerinki teerinki, 74
tristissima, nest of, Pl. II
tristissima calaminoros, 73; breeding season
of, 11
Lophorina
superba feminina, 49
Loria
loriae loriae, 47; breeding season of, 10
Lorius
lory lory, 31; breeding season of, 9
lory major, 31
lory viridicrissalis, 31; breeding season of, 9

82 INDEX

Macgregoria
pulchra carolinae, 47; breeding season of, 10
Machaerirhynchus
flaviventer albigula, 62
nigripectus saturatus, 62; breeding season of,
11
Macropygia
amboinensis balim, 28
amboinensis batchianensis, 28
amboinensis doreya, 28
amboinensis kerstingi, 28
nigrirostris nigrirostris, 29
Malurinae, 56-57
Malurus
alboscapulatus aida, 56; breeding season of,
10
alboscapulatus balim, 56
alboscapulatus randi, 56
Manucodia
ater ater, 47
chalybatus, 47
jobiensis rubiensis, 47; breeding season of, 10
Mearnsia
novaeguineae novaeguineae, 40
Megacrex
inepta pallida, 23
Megalopre pia
magnifica puella, 27
magnifica septentrionalis, 27; breeding sea-
son of, 9
Megalurus
timoriensis macrurus, 57; breeding season of,
10
Megapodiidae, 18-20
Megapodius, eggs of, P1. II
freycinet, 20
freycinet affinis, 19; breeding season of, 8
freycinet freycinet, 18; breeding season of, 8
wallacei, 19; breeding season of, 8
Melampitta
lugubris longicauda, 54
lugubris rostrata, 54
Melanocharis
nigra nigra, 72; breeding season of, 11
nigra unicolor, 72; breeding season of, 11
striativentris axillaris, 72
versteri meeki, 72
Melidectes
belfordi kinneari, 69
nouhuysi, 69; breeding season of, 11
torquatus mixtus, 69
Melilestes
megarhynchus stresemanni, 68
Meliphaga
analoga analoga, 71; breeding season of, 11
aruensis, 71
aruensis sharpei, 70; breeding season of, 11
virescens sonoroides, 70
Meliphagidae, 67-72
Melipotes, 68, 69
fumigatus goliathi, 68; breeding season of, 11
Meropidae, 43

Merops
ornatus, 43
philippinus salvadorii, 43; breeding season
of, 9
Microdynamys, 37
Microeca
flavovirescens cuicui, 63; breeding season
of, 11
papuana, 63; breeding season of, 11
Micropsitta
bruijnit, 33
keiensis chloroxantha, 33; breeding season

of, 9
pusio beccarii, 33
Mino

anais anais, 46
anais orientalis, 46
dumonti dumontii, 46
dumontii violaceus, 46; breeding season of,
10
Monachella
miilleriana miilleriana, 63
Monarcha
alecto chalybeocephalus, 61; breeding sea-
son of, 10
chrysomela aurantiacus, 62
chrysomela melanonotus, 62; breeding sea-
son of, 11
frater periopthalmicus, 61
guttula, 61, 62; breeding season of, 11
insularis, 62; breeding season of, 11
julianae, 62
manadensis, 61
rubiensis, 61; extensions of range, 7
telescophthalmus telescophthalmus, 62;
breeding season of, 11
Motacilla
cinerea caspica, 66
flava simillima, 66
Motacillidae, 66
Mundavis
polygramma, 70
Muscicapidae, 54-66
Muscicapinae, 60-64
Myiolestes
megarhynchus hybridus, 65; breeding sea-
son of, 11
megarhynchus idenburgi, 65
megarhynchus misoliensis, 65; breeding sea-
son of, 11
Myzomela
dibapha batjanensis, at feeding trees, 6
eques eques, 67; breeding season of, 11
eques primitiva, 67, 68; at feeding trees, 7;
breeding season of, 11
nigrita meyeri, 68; at feeding trees, 7
obscura simplex, 6
rosenbergii rosenbergii, 68; breeding season
of, 11

Nectarinea

jugularis frenata, 67; breeding season of, 11
sericea auriceps, 66

INDEX 83

sericea cochrani, 67
sericea mariae, 66
sericea sericea, 67
Nectariniidae, 66-67
Neneba, 72
Neopsittacus
musschenbroekii, at feeding trees, 7
musschenbroekii medius, 32
pullicauda, at feeding trees, 7
pullicauda alpinus, 32
Neosittidae, 66
Ninox
rufa humeralis, 38
theomacha theomacha, 38
Notophoyx
novaehollandiae austera, subsp. nov., 13
novaehollandiae nana, 13
novaehollandiae novaehollandiae, 13
Numenius
phaeopus variegatus, 24
Nycticorax
caledonicus hilli, 14; extensions of range, 7

Oedistoma

pygmaeum pygmaeum, 67
Onychognathus, 6
O popsitta

diophthalma diophthalma, 33; extensions of

range, 7

Oreopsittacus

arfaki major, 32
Oreornis

chrysogenys, 69

subfrenatus melanolaema, 69
Oriolidae, 45
Oriolus

melanotis, 45

szalayi, 45; breeding season of, 10
Orthonyx

temminckii dorsalis, 55

Pachycephala, 64-66, 69
lorentzi, 64; breeding season of, 11
monacha dorsalis, 65
pectoralis balim, 64; breeding season of, 11
phaionotum, 65
rufinucha niveifrons, 65
schlegelii viridipectus, 64; breeding season
of, 11
simplex griseiceps, 64
simplex jobiensis, 65
Pachycephalinae, 64-66
Pachyce phalopsis
poliosoma balim, 64
Paradigalla
brevicauda, 48
carunculata carunculata, 48
carunculata intermedia, 48
Paradisaeidae, 47-51
Paradisea, 45, 48, 49 50-51
minor minor, 50; breeding season of, 10
minor pulchra, 50; breeding season of, 10
rubra, 50, 51

Paramythia, 69 73
montium alpinum, 73; breeding season of, 11
Pelicanidae, 12
Pelecanus
conspicillatus, 12; extensions of range, 7
Peltops
blainvillii, 60
montanus, 60; breeding season of, 10
Peneothello
cryptoleucus albidior, 64
cyanus atricapilla, 64; breeding season of, 11
sigillatus quadrimaculatus, 63; breeding sea-
son of, 11
Petrochelidon
nigricans nigricans, 44
Petroica
bivittata caudata, 63
Phalacrocoracidae, 12-13
Phalacrocorax
melanoleucos melanoleucos, 12
Phalaropodidae, 25
Phalaropus
lobatus, 25
Phasianidae, 20-21
Philemon
meyeri, 71; breeding season of, 11
novaeguineae jobiensis, 72; breeding season
of, 11; extensions of range, 7
novaeguineae novaeguineae,
season of, 11
Phylloscopus
trivirgatus giulianettii, 59
Pitohui
dichrous dichrous, 66
ferrugineus clarus, 66
ferrugineus ferrugineus, 66
ferrugineus heurni, 66; breeding season of,
11
ferrugineus holerythrus, 66
kirhocephalus meyeri, 65; breeding season
of, 11
kirhocephalus proteus, 65
kirhocephalus uropygialis, 65; breeding sea-
son of, 11
Pitta
erythrogaster habenichti, 44
erythrogaster macklotii, 43; breeding season
of, 9
sordida novae-guineae, 44; breeding season
of, 9
Pittidae, 43-44
Ploceidae, 73-75
Pluvialis
dominica fulva, 24
Podargidae, 38
Podargus
ocellatus ocellatus, 38; breeding season of, 9
papuensis, 38; breeding season of, 9
Podiceps
novaehollandiae novaehollandiae, 12
ruficollis tricolor, 12; breeding season of, 8
Podicipedidae, 12
Poecilodryas

72; breeding

84 INDEX

albonotata griseiventris, 63; breeding sea-
son of, 11
brachyura dumasi, 63
hypoleuca hermani, 63
hypoleuca hypoleuca, 63
Poeoptera, 6
Poliolimnas
cinereus minimus, 22; breeding season of, 9
Pomatostomus
isidori calidus, 55
isidori isidori, 55; breeding season of, 10
Porphyrio
melanopterus, 24
poliocephalus melanotus, 24; breeding sea-
son of, 9; extensions of range, 7
Porzana
tabuensis edwardi, 22; breeding season of, 9
tabuensis richardsoni, 22
tabuensis tabuensis, 22
Pristorhamphus, 73
Probosciger
aterrimus alecto, 33
aterrimus goliath, 33; breeding season of, 9
aterrimus stenolphus, 33
Pseudeos
fuscata incondita, 30
Psittacella
brehmii intermixta, 34
lorentzi, 35; breeding season of, 9
Psittacidae, 30-35
Psittaculirostris
edwardsti, 33
Pteridophora
alberti alberti, 49
Ptilinopus, 26-27
aurantiifrons, 27; breeding season of, 9
coronulatus geminus, 26
coronulatus quadrigeminus,
season of, 9
coronulatus trigeminus, 26; breeding season
of, 9
iozonus humeralis, 26; breeding season of, 9
iozonus jobiensis, 26; breeding season of, 9
manus minimus, 27
perlatus plumbeicollis, 27
pulchellus decorus, 26; breeding season of, 9
pulchellus pulchellus, 26
rivoli bellus, 26; breeding season of, 9
superbus superbus, 26; breeding season of, 9
viridis pectoralis, 27
viridis salvadorii, 27; breeding season of, 9
‘Ptilonorhynchidae, 51
Ptiloprora, 69, 71
erythropleura dammermani, 71
guisei, 71
meekiana occidentalis, 71
perstriata lorentzi, 71; breeding season of,
11
Ptiloris
magnificus magnificus, 48; breeding season
of, 10
Ptilorrhoa
caerulescens caerulescens, 55

26; breeding

caerulescens neumanii, 55
leucosticta centralis, 55
Pycnopygius
cinereus marmoratus, 71; breeding season
of, 11
ixoides proximus, 71
stictocephalus, 71

Rallicula
rubra subrubra, 22
Rallidae, 21-24
Rallina
tricolor tricolor, 22
Rallus
pectoralis, 22
pectoralis captus, 21; breeding season of, 8
pectoralis connectens, 21
pectoralis mayri, 21
philippensis australis, 21
philippensis randi, 21, 22
philippensis wahgiensis, 21
Reinwardtoena
reinwardtsi griseotincta, 29; breeding season
Or Y)
Rhamphomantis
megarhynchus megarhynchus, 36-37
megarhynchus sanfordi, 37
Rhipidura
albolimbata albolimbata, 60; breeding sea-
son of, 10
atra atra, 60
brachyrhyncha devisi, 60
hyperythra miilleri, 60
leucophrys melaleuca, 61; breeding season
of, 10
leucothorax leucothorax, 60
rufidorsa rufidorsa, 60; breeding season of, 10
rufiventris gularis, 61; breeding season of, 10
rufiventris vidua, 61
threnothorax threnothorax, 60;
season of, 10
Richmondena, 36

breeding

Salvadorina
waigeuensis, 16; breeding season of, 8
Sauromar ptis
gaudichaud, 42
Saxicola
caprata aethiops, 56
caprata belensis, 56; breeding season of, 10
Scolopacidae, 24-25
Scolopax
saturata rosenbergii, 25
Scythrops
novae-hollandiae, 37
Seleucides
melanoleuca auripennis, 48; breeding season
of, 10
Sericornis
beccarii cyclopum, 58
nouhuysi nouhwysi, 58; breeding season of,
10

INDEX 85

papuensis biirgersi, 58; breeding season of,
10
perspicillatus, 58; breeding season of, 10
spilodera spilodera, 58; breeding season of,
10
Sterna
bergii cristatus, 25
sumatrana sumatrana, 25; breeding season
of, 9
Strigidae, 38
Sturnidae, 45-46
Sylviinae, 57-59
Syma
megarhyncha wellsi, 41
torotoro torotoro, 41

Tadorna
radjah radjah, 14
Talegalla, eggs of, Pl. II
Talegalla
cuvieri, 19; breeding season of, 8
jobiensis, 4
jobiensis jobiensis, 19-21; breeding season of,
8
jobiensis longicauda, 19
Tanygnathus
megalorhynchus megalorhynchus, 34
Tanysiptera
ellioti, 42
galatea galatea, 42
galatea margarethae, 42
galatea meyeri, 42
sylvia sylvia, 42
Threskiornis
moluccus moluccus, 14; breeding season of,
8
Threskiornithidae, 14
Timaliinae, 54-56
Timeliopsis
fulvigula montana, 67
griseigula griseigula, 67; breeding season of,
11

Todopsis
cyanocephala
season of, 10
cyanocephala dohertyi, 56
wallacii, 57
Toxorhamphus
iliolophus iliolophus, 68; breeding season of,
11
novae-guineae novae-guineae, 68; breeding
season of, 11
Trichoglossus
haematodus haematodus, 30, 31; breeding
season of, 9
haematodus intermedius, 30-31
haematodus rosenbergii, 31
Tringa
hypoleucos, 25
Turdinae, 56
Tyto
capensis baliem, subsp. nov., 37
capensis papuensis, 37
tenebricosa arfaki, 37
Tytonidae, 37

cyanocephala, 56; breeding

Xanthotis
chrysotis, at feeding trees, 7
chrysotis austera, 70
chrysotis meyeri, 70; breeding season of, 11
chrysotis philemon, 70
polygramma, at feeding trees, 7
polygramma kuehni, 70; breeding season of,
11
polygramma poikilosternos, 70

Zonerodius
heliosylus, 14
Zonotrichia, 59
Zosteropidae, 73
Zosterops
atriceps, at feeding trees, 6
fuscicapilla fuscicapilla, 73; breeding sea-
son of, 1]

Top.

Middle.
Bottom.

PLATE I

Hollandia Bay from Holtekong looking west towards Sentani. Mrs. Ripley and
Jusup Khakiaj with cassowary chick.

Ilaga River, 7000 feet. Dani rattan and wood bridge.

Dani village dancing area, 7500 feet. Casuarina and pandanus trees in back-
ground, looking southwest towards upland plateau trail to west Baliem at
9000 feet.

epee, | Ney.

cate a

PEATE Um

Top Left. Nest of Lonchura tristissima. See text, p. 73
Top Right. Sirikena at the Moasets bivouac (560 m altitude = c. 1800 ft), Lower

Mamberano River. Collection of Megapodius and Talegalla eggs. See text,
p. 20

Lowland forest with slash cultivation of cassava and plantain in fore-
ground. Bodim, 300 feet altitude.

Bottom Right. Uhunduni hunter with stone ax, Ilaga 7500 feet.

Bottom Left.

one

. _
: is
Vid :
ig :
eee Ae
| coy) ¥
oY ar) A HAY Lr
i iy y ve
= uh i y j
ve il i
A ae OT ee
iy vite y dee :
1 fi ~ f SA i" :
: j
’ '
i
" } wT va
a i
» 5 if fe .
a ; > Ue
j

: 1A ij j }
7 7
-
er ne
ih!
a |
ne

iit }

eri
Hite

Py ;

7 wh
td 11 i
th f

i vie
Ly ies 4

") 1 hl
i Th
a oe i
; ae
ni \ Vn
a ee Fie 2
; TA

4 ai i 4
y : AF a
Wo ee , ;
is BY, by Altera
Me ( iy j tp T iw f :
Du i]
. fe ra ; - i ; i \ j} iif
inet ; i : i r KA\ 1 N yaerat
baie br | ri vi ay
5 rk, ay De apart a eae H shu Ae (2) ewe

. mag
sion NNN
ie ae aay

}
es
'
>
ie
han
ny
!
; /
LE
q
: .
-

an 7a 7 ia

We 3s, aN
eae ne 4 : ou

3 2044 06

Peete id
rae | me : - .
at ‘ . * F ? ; 1b c8 Wig Bo GGT REN eget
Sean ays Letes : . - 4 Pr: oe - aca ee
1 = ; - , P tie BE op ao Od e
. 1 a Aan cm P : a yeh « aS 7 ‘ veo hi ane arene
el 2 . ‘ . Po eu Denar . crores Be Eye Mee
7 oe ete aes oe intial tanh Sat : : geht -
PE ae ae ee
eer ey re
bytes warns sy

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "Bulletin"

See other formats