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).
Gallinago megala Swinhoe
Marsh Snipe
Gallinago megala Swinhoe, Ibis, 1861, p. 343. (Type locality, Between Takoo and Pekin, China.
Gallinago heteroeaca Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 5, 36 (Palau).
Gallinago megala Salvadori, Ornith. Papuasia, 3, 1882, p. 337 (Pelew); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 67 (Pelew); Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 24, 1896, p. 624 (Pelew); Hartert, Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 65 (Guam); Seale, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 1, 1901, p. 33 (Mariannas); Safford, Osprey, 1902, p. 67 (Mariannas); idem, The Plant World, 7, 1904, p. 266 (Guam); idem, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb., 9, 1905, p. 80 (Guam); Cox, Island of Guam, 1917, p. 21 (Guam); Hartert, Vögel pal. Fauna, 13-14, 1921, p. 1665 (Palau, Guam); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 44 (Guam, Palau); Strophlet, Auk, 63, 1946, p. 537 (Guam); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 54 (Angaur).
Subspilura megala Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 49 (Guam, Pelew).