Erolia minuta ruficollis (Pallas)
Little Stint
Trynga ruficollis Pallas, Reise versch. Prov. Russ. Reichs, 3, 1776, p. 700. (Type locality, "Circa lacus salsos Dauriae campestris" = Kulussutai, southern Transbaikalia.)
Tringa minuta Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1868, pp. 8, 118 (Pelew); Gray, Hand-list Birds, pt. 3, 1871, p. 50 (Pelew); Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, pp. 89, 106 (Pelew); Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 5, 36 (Palau).
Tringa albescens Salvadori, Ornith. Papuasia, 3, 1882, p. 316 (Pelew); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 64 (Pelew).
Limonites minuta Takatsukasa and Kudora, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 62 (Pelew).
Pisobia ruficollis Ridgway, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 50, pt. 8, 1919, p. 290 (Pelew).
Pisobia minuta ruficollis Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 48 (Palau, Ulithi); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 192 (Palau, Ulithi).
Calidris ruficollis ruficollis Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 215 (Palau, Ulithi).
Calidris minuta ruficollis Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 45 (Micronesia); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 54 (Rota, Peleliu).
Geographic range.—Breeds from northeastern Siberia to northwestern Alaska. Winters south from the Malay area to Australia. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands—Rota; Palau Islands—Angaur, Peleliu; Caroline Islands—Ulithi.
Specimens examined.—Total number, 16 (4 males, 12 females), as follows: Mariana Islands, USNM—Rota, 1 (Oct. 20); Palau Islands, USNM—Peleliu, 14 (Sept. 6-14)—Angaur, 1 (Sept. 21).
Remarks.—The Little Stint is apparently a regular visitor to the Palau Islands and a less common visitor to the Mariana Islands. At Peleliu and Angaur the NAMRU2 party found these birds in small flocks of 10 to 15 at tidal flats and at inland ponds. On tidal flats the species appeared to remain apart from other kinds of shore birds, but at inland ponds the Little Stint was found in company with other species. On shooting into a mixed flock of shore birds at an island pond at Angaur, the writer secured specimens of this species and also of Erolia acuminata.