The Avifauna of Micronesia, Its Origin, Evolution, and Distribution

by Rollin H. Baker

Arenaria interpres interpres (Linnaeus)

Turnstone

Tringa Interpres Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, 1758, p. 148. (Type locality, Europe and North America, restricted to Gotland, Sweden.)

Tringa interpres Quoy and Gaimard, Voy. "Uranie," Zool., 1824, p. 708 (Guam).

Strepsila collaris Kittlitz, Obser. Zool., in Lutké, Voy. "Le Séniavine," 3, 1836, pp. 287, 299, 304 (Ualan, Lougounor, Guahan); idem, Denkw. Reise russ. Amer. Micron. und Kamchat., 2, 1858, p. 32 (Ualan).

Strepsilas interpres Kittlitz, Denk. Reise russ. Amer. Micron. und Kamchat., 2, 1858, pp. 32, 55, 86 (Ualan); Pelzeln, Reise "Novara," Vögel, 1865, p. 117 (Mariannen); Finsch and Hartlaub, Fauna Ornith. Centralpolynesian, 1867, p. 200 (Mariannen); Hartlaub, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1867 (1868), p. 831 (Pelew); Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1868, pp. 8, 118 (Pelew); idem, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, pp. 89, 104 (Pelew, Uap, Mackenzie); Gräffe, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 2, 1873, p. 123 (Yap); Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 5, 32 (Palau); idem, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1877 (1878), p. 781 (Ponapé); idem, Ibis, 1880, pp. 220, 330, 332 (Taluit); idem, Journ. f. Ornith., 1880, pp. 294, 306 (Ponapé, Kuschai); idem, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880, p. 576 (Ruk); idem, Ibis, 1881, pp. 105, 109, 115 (Kushai, Ponapé); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, pp. 281, 330, 353 (Ponapé, Nukuor, Ruk); Salvadori, Ornith. Papuasia, 3, 1882, p. 289 (Pelew, Mariannis); Finsch, Mitth. Ornith. Ver. Wien, 1884, p. 56 (Jaluit, Kuschai); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891); p. 63 (Ualan, Ponapé, Luganor, Nukuor, Ruk, Mackenzie, Pelew, Marianne); Oustalet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, (3), 8, 1896, p. 45 (Guam, Saypan, Hogoleu, Marshalls, Mackensie, Palaos); Hartert, Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 66 (Guam); idem, Novit. Zool., 7, 1900, p. 9 (Ruk); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 51 (Ponapé); Uchida, Annot. Zool. Japon., 9, 1918, p. 489 (Ponapé).

Cinclus interpres Gray, Cat. Birds Trop. Is. Pacific Ocean, 1859, p. 48 (Ladrones).

Arenaria interpres Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 24, 1896, p. 92 (Micronesia); Seale, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 1, 1901, p. 37 (Guam); Safford, Osprey, 1902, p. 68 (Marianas); idem, The Plant World, 7, 1904, p. 266 (Guam); Schnee, Zool. Jahrbücher, 20, 1904, p. 389 (Marshall Islands); Safford, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb., 9, 1905, p. 80 (Guam), Cox, Island of Guam, 1917, p. 22 (Guam); Wharton and Hardcastle, Journ. Parasitology, 32, 1946, pp. 316, 320 (Guam, Peleliu); Downs, Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci., 49, 1946, p. 105 (Tinian); Strophlet, Auk, 1946, p. 537 (Guam); Wharton, Ecol. Monogr., 16, 1946, pp. 174, 175 (Guam); Borror, Auk, 1947, p. 417 (Agrihan); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 53 (Guam, Rota, Peleliu, Truk).

Arenaria interpres oahuensis Wetmore, in Townsend and Wetmore, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoöl., 66, 1919, p. 177 (Jaluit, Rongelab, Uala); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 45 (Guam, Saipan, Pelew, Angaur, Kusaie, Ponapé, Luganor, Nukuor, Ruk, Yap, Mackenzie, Taluit, Rongelab).

Arenaria interpres interpres Ridgway, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 50, pt. 8, 1919, p. 45 (Micronesia); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 194 (Guam, Saipan, Anguar, Kusaie, Ponapé, Luganor, Nukuor, Ruk, Yap, Mackenzie, Taluit, Rongelab, Mille, Majuro, Wotze, Likieb); Bryan, Guam Rec., vol. 13, no. 2, 1936, p. 24 (Guam); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 217 (Guam, Saipan, Angaur, Kusaie, Ponapé, Luganor, Ruk, Yap, Mackenzie, Taluit, Rongelab, Mille, Majuro, Wotze, Likieb); Stickney, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 1248, 1943, p. 8 (Guam, Palau, Ponapé, Kusaie).

Geographic range.—Breeds in northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Winters to Southern Hemisphere. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands—Guam, Rota, Saipan; Palau Islands—Angaur, Peleliu, Caroline Islands—Yap, Ulithi, Truk, Lugunor, Nukuor, Ponapé, Kusaie; Marshall Islands—Jaluit, Rongelab, Mille, Majuro, Wotze, Likieb, Bikini.

Specimens examined.—Total number, 36 (17 males, 16 females, 3 unsexed), as follows: Mariana Islands. USNM—Guam, 7 (Oct. 10-26)—Rota, 2 (Oct. 20, Nov. 2); AMNH—Guam, 4 (Mar. 22, 27, Aug. 18); Palau Islands, USNM—Peleliu, 1 (Sept. 8); AMNH—exact locality not given, 3 (Dec. 8); Caroline Islands, USNM—Truk, 1 (Dec. 22); AMNH—Ponapé, 4 (Dec. 16)—Truk, 4 (Feb. 5, 7, July 14)—Kusaie, 7 (Mar. 10-30); Marshall Islands, USNM—Bikini, 3 (Feb. 26, Mar. 4).

Weights.—The NAMRU2 party obtained the weights of four males taken at Guam and Rota as 77-99 (92) and one female from Guam as 90. These birds were obtained in October and November.

Parasites.—Wharton and Hardcastle (1946:316, 320) list the following chiggers (Acarina) from the Turnstone from Guam and Peleliu: Neoschöngastia carveri and N. strongi. Wharton (1946:174) records also Acariscus anous from the Turnstone at Guam. Uchida (1918:489) records the bird louse (Mallophaga), Colpocephalum pediculoides, from this bird at Ponapé.

Remarks.—The Turnstone is a regular visitor to Micronesia and to most other parts of Oceania. As pointed out by Stickney (1943:8), the material obtained by the Whitney South Sea Expedition yields evidence that the population which winters in Oceania is as widespread as that of Pluvialis dominica fulva but less abundant. The writer's observations at Guam, Ulithi and the Palaus are in agreement with this evidence. Stickney suggests that the reason the Turnstone was not recorded by the Whitney South Sea Expedition in eastern Polynesia was because of "a tendency of the turnstone to hug the continental coasts more closely, avoiding extensive overseas migrations."

At Guam in 1945, the NAMRU2 party recorded the Turnstone on its northward migration as late as March 19; on its southward migration it was first seen at Guam on July 24. On its southward migration the bird was not numerous until September. Our observations indicated that in 1945, the principal waves of migration of the Turnstone appeared approximately two weeks after those of the Pacific Golden Plover and the Whimbrel. Stickney remarks that the spring migratory season in Oceania is completed in May and that the fall migratory season begins in August. Borror (1947:417) found small flocks on the beaches at Agrihan on August 10 and 11, 1945.

Bryan and Greenway (1944:112) indicate that the subspecies, Arenaria interpres morinella, which breeds in North America, east of Point Barrow, Alaska, may reach the Hawaiians. Careful examination of specimens from eastern Micronesia might reveal its presence there also. The name Areneria interpres oahuensis (Bloxham) may apply to specimens from eastern Micronesia but Peters (1934:271) considers oahuensis to be inseparable from Arenaria interpres interpres (Linnaeus).