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

by Rollin H. Baker

Subspecies	Number and sex	Wing	Tail	Full Culmen	Depth of culmen at nostril
A. o. opacus	15 males	124	80	24	9.5
		121-125	76-85	24-26	9.0-10.0
	12 females	119	77	24	9.0
		115-125	72-82	23-26	8.5-9.0
A. o. ponapensis	17 males	133	87	27	9.5
		130-138	85-91	26-29	9.0-10.0
	11 females	126	83	27	9.0
		122-127	81-85	26-28	8.5-9.0
A. o. angus	16 males	129	88	28	9.5
		125-131	84-92	27-29	8.0-9.0
	7 females	124	85	27	8.5
		121-129	83-88	25-28	8.0-9.0
A. o. orii	11 males	128	86	27	7.5
		124-131	83-90	25-28	7.5-8.5
	7 females	124	79	26	7.5
		121-126	77-82	25-27	7.5-8.0
A. o. guami	41 males	128	86	27	9.5
		120-136	81-92	24-29	8.5-10.5
	32 females	121	84	26	9.5
		117-126	78-89	24-30	8.5-10.5

Remarks.—The Micronesian Starling at Kusaie was first taken by Kittlitz (1833:11), who named it in the following manner: "Turdus columbinus Gm. L. oder Lamproth. opaca Lichtenstein." The bird was later given the name of Calornis kittlitzi by Finsch and Hartlaub (1867:109). Oberholser (1917:59) has shown that the specific name opaca is applicable, since the manuscript name Lamprothornis opaca of Lichtenstein is made available by Kittlitz's published description and figure, and since it is the earliest name used. Mathews (1938:342) reports that the name Aplornis appeared a few days before the name Aplonis. I have been unable to check his source of information.

The Micronesia Starling is one of the most abundant birds at Kusaie. Coultas (field notes) observed the bird in all parts of the island, when he visited there in 1931. He found the bird in flocks of two to six or more and noted that birds in immature plumage seemed to outnumber the birds in adult plumage approximately five to one. This subspecies is characterized by the presence of only a slight amount of gloss on the black feathers of the adult.

Aplonis opacus ponapensis Takatsukasa and Yamashina

Micronesian Starling

Aplonis opaca ponapensis Takatsukasa and Yamashina, Tori, 7, 1931, p. 109. (Type locality, Ponapé.)

Calornis columbina Pelzeln, Reise "Novara," Vögel, 1865, pp. 88, 162 (Puynipet).

Calornis kittlitzi Finsch and Hartlaub (part), Fauna Centralpolynesiens, 1867, p. 109 (Puynipet); Schmeltz and Krause (part), Ethnogr. Abth. Mus. Godeffroy, 1881, p. 298 (Ponapé).

Calornis opaca Gray (part), Hand-list Birds, 2, 1870, p. 27 (Seniavin = Ponapé).

Calornis pacificus Finsch (part), Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 12, 1876, pp. 17, 32 (Ponapé); idem, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1877 (1878), p. 779 (Ponapé); idem (part), Journ. f. Ornith., 1880, p. 289 (Ponapé); idem, (part), Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880, p. 576 (Ponapé).