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

by Rollin H. Baker

Heteroscelus incanus (Gmelin)

American Wandering Tattler

Scolopax incana Gmelin, Syst. Nat., 1, pt. 2, 1789, p. 658. (Type locality, Eimeo = Moorea, Society Islands and Palmerton Islands.)

Totanus oceanicus Lesson, Mamm. et Ois., 2, 1847, p. 244 (Kusaie); Hartlaub, Archiv f. Naturgesch., 1852, p. 135 (Carolinen); idem, Journ. f. Ornith., 1854, pp. 167, 168 (Carolinen, Mariannen).

Tryanga glareola Kittlitz, Denkw. Reise russ. Amer. Micron. und Kamchat., 1, 1858, p. 365, 2, pp. 55, 86 (Ualan).

Totanus incanus Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, 5, no. 27, 1864, p. 74 (Micronésie); Salvadori (part), Ornith. Papuasia, 3, 1882, p. 322 (Ualan, Puynipet, Marshalls, Mariannis); Wiglesworth (part), Abhandl. und. Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 65 (Mulgrave, Taluit, Ualan, Ponapé, Ruk, Luganor, Uap, Marianne, Pelew); Oustalet (part), Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, (3), 8, 1896, p. 41 (Saypan, Guam, Jaluit, Carolines, Palaos); Hartert, Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 64 (Guam); idem, Novit. Zool. 7, 1900, p. 8 (Ruk); Schnee, Zool. Jahrbücher, 20, 1904, p. 389 (Marschall-Inseln).

Actitis incanus Finsch and Hartlaub (part), Fauna Centralpolynesions, 1867, p. 187 (Mariannen, Ualan, Puynipet); Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, pp. 89, 106 (Uap, Ualan); Gräffe, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 2, 1873, p. 123 (Yap); Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 5, 36 (Palau); idem, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 12, 1876, pp. 18, 38 (Ponapé); idem, Journ. f. Ornith., 1880, pp. 294, 306 (Ponapé, Kuschai, Marshalls); idem, Ibis, 1881, pp. 105, 109, 115 (Kushai, Ponapé); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, p. 299 (Mortlock); Finsch, Mitth. Ornith. Ver. Wien, 1884, p. 55 (Jaluit, Arno, Kuschai).

Actitis incana Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1877 (1878), p. 781 (Ponapé); idem, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880, p. 576 (Ruk); idem, Ibis, 1880, pp. 219, 220, 330, 332 Milli or Mulgrave, Taluit).

Heteractitis incanus Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 24, 1906, p. 455 (Oceania); Safford, The Plant World, 7, 1904, p. 268 (Guam); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 62 (Yap, Ruk, Ponapé, Kusaie); Wetmore, in Townsend and Wetmore, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoöl., 63, 1919, p. 179 (Kusaie); Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 70 (westcentral Pacific).

Heteroscelus incanus Ridgway, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 50, pt. 8, 1919, p. 367 (Carolines, Marianas); Peters, Check-list Birds World, 2, 1934, p. 270 (Micronesia); Bryan, Guam Rec., vol. 13, no. 2, 1936, p. 24 (Guam): Watson, The Raven, 17, 1946, p. 42 (Guam); Wharton and Hardcastle (part), Journ. Parasitology, 32, 1946, pp. 296, 316, 318 (Guam, Peleliu); Downs, Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci., 49, 1946, p. 93 (Tinian); Strophlet, Auk, 1946, p. 537 (Guam); Wharton, Ecol. Monogr., 16, 1946, pp. 174, 175 (Guam); Borror, Auk, 1947, p. 417 (Agrihan).

Tringa incana incana Hartert, Vögel pal. Fauna, 13-14, 1921, p. 1623 (Guam); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 191 (Marianas, Carolines, Marshalls, Palaus); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 214 (Saipan, Guam, Koror, Angaur, Yap, Faraulep, Lamatrek, Truk, Ponapé, Kusaie, Jaluit, Mille, Arhno, Majuro, Maloelab, Wotze, Likieb, Ailuk).

Heteroscelus incanus incanus Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 46 (Kusaie, Ruk, Ponapé, Yap, Marianas, Mulgrave, Taluit, Pelew); Stickney, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 1248, 1943, p. 7 (Guam, Palau, Ponapé, Ruk, Kusaie); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 42 (Palau, Marianas); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 53 (Guam, Rota, Ulithi).

Geographic range.—Breeds in Alaska south to Prince William Sound. Winters in North and South America and west in Oceania to Melanesia. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands—Guam, Rota, Saipan, Agrihan; Palau Islands—Angaur, Koror; Caroline Islands—Yap, Ulithi, Truk, Faraulep, Lamatrek, Ponapé, Kusaie; Marshall Islands—Jaluit, Mille, Arhno, Majuro, Maloelab, Wotze, Likieb, Ailuk, Bikini.

Specimens examined.—Total number, 47 (23 males, 20 females, 4 unsexed) as follows: Mariana Islands, USNM—Guam, 13 (May 21-29, Sept. 19-27, Oct. 10, 23),—Rota, 2 (Oct. 23, 25); AMNH—Guam, 4 (April 23, Aug. 16); Palau Islands, AMNH—exact locality not given, 1 (no date); Caroline Islands, USNM—Ulithi, 3 (Aug. 20, 22); AMNH—Truk, 1 (June 25),—Ponapé, 1 (Dec. 15),—Kusaie, 19 (Feb., Mar., April 1-10); Marshall Islands, USNM—Bikini, 3 (Feb. 26, 28, April 28).

Weights.—In 1948 (1948:53) I listed weights of two males from Guam as 175 (May) and 109 (September); weights of two females from Guam were 175 and 192 (both in May). These data were obtained by the NAMRU2 field party.

Parasites.—Wharton and Hardcastle (1946:296, 316, 318) list the following chiggers (Acarina) from tattlers taken by NAMRU2 collectors at Guam and Peleliu: Neoschöngastia bougainvillensis, N. ewingi, N. carveri, and N. namrui. Wharton (1946:174, 175) records the chiggers, Acariscus pluvius and A. anous, from tattlers from Guam. It is not certain from which species of Heteroscelus these chiggers were obtained.

Remarks.—Records indicate that the American Wandering Tattler is a regular visitor to eastern Micronesia, and that it only occasionally reaches the Palau Islands in western Micronesia.

The NAMRU2 field parties found H. brevipes as singles or in small groups of five or less. They remained apart from other species and appeared to prefer rocky beaches and coral-reef rocks to the sandy beaches. At Guam in 1945, the latest spring migrants were taken on May 29. These birds were in nuptial plumage. Birds taken at Bikini by Morrison on February 26 and April 28, 1946, were in worn, winter plumage. At Guam, the NAMRU2 observers obtained the first fall migrants on September 19. These observations in 1945, showed that H. incanus arrived at Guam on its southbound flight fully one month after the first individuals of H. brevipes began to appear (mid-July). This difference may partly result from the fact that the distance to the Asiatic breeding grounds of H. brevipes is not so great as that to the American breeding grounds of H. incanus.

Whether the two tattlers, H. brevipes and H. incanus, are distinct species (allopatric species insofar as breeding ranges are concerned), or whether they are mere subspecies (geographic races) is open to question. I failed to find evidences of intergradation in the few specimens which I examined critically; however, the final answer to the problem might be obtained by collecting series of birds from breeding grounds where ranges closely approach each other or overlap (if they do). Stickney (1943:6, 7) lists the distinctive differences in these two birds, particularly the character of the nasal groove, and does not mention having found any evidence of intergradation. Wetmore (in Townsend and Wetmore, 1919:180) gives evidence that they belong to two separate species.