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VEGETATION

The "high" islands of Micronesia support a heavy cover of vegetation. Typically the lowlands and stream courses are covered with dense jungle vegetation, and the slopes and higher hills are covered with grasses and brush. The vegetation of the "low" coral atolls and islands is, by comparison, much less dense. Many shorelines are covered with scant grasses and shrubs and the interior in many places is dominated by coconut, betel palms, breadfruit, papaya, and pandanus. References to papers dealing with plants in the islands of the Pacific may be obtained in Merrill , who writes, "Botanically, the low islands are very uninteresting and monotonous. The flora of one is usually quite the same as that of another, although these islands and islets may be separated by many hundred and in some cases several thousand miles. The native vegetation may be scanty or reasonably well developed, depending on the size of the island, the quality of its soil, and whether or not it is permanently inhabitated." Of the vegetation on the "high" islands of the Pacific area, Merrill comments that the vegetation "is well developed, particularly within the forested areas, but for these high islands within the Pacific basin as a whole, the number of endemic genera is relatively small and most of them have definite relationships with those of Malaysia." Concerning the "high" islands of Micronesia, Merrill remarks that these islands are smaller and more isolated than some of the others in Oceania and have fewer individual species "as compared with what one finds on islands of a similar size located within limits of the Malay Archipelago. Thus with all of the islands under Japanese mandate, and including a number of high, but at the same time relatively small islands, less than 1,300 different species are known, of which 230 manifestly represent purposely or accidentally introduced ones. This relatively small flora includes representatives of approximately 620 genera in 192 families.... Specific endemism is relatively high, for approximately 460 species are confined to the islands within the area under consideration. The generic endemism is very low; about seven endemic genera only are involved for the whole group." The figures for endemism of plants are comparable to those for birds. Of endemic birds there are 5 genera, 35 species, and 73 subspecies. The total number of species of birds known from Micronesia is only 206 as compared with 1,300 plants. Yamada writes that the number of species of plants that Micronesia has in common with Japan may be due to the influence of the "Japan Stream."

Many land birds in Micronesia depend directly on the plant life for food. Possibly the soil , upon which the plants themselves depend for development of fruits and other edible parts, may offer a limiting factor to the distribution of birds in Micronesia. Possibly the fruits and other edible parts of plants do not provide the necessary amounts of proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, and other essential food items for species of plant-eating birds, which have not become established in Micronesia. Possibly some species of plant-eating birds have reached Micronesia but have failed to establish themselves because of some dietary deficiency caused by poverty of the soils on which the plants grow. If a comparison were made of soils and of the food values of fruits of plants in both the islands of Micronesia and similarly sized islands in the Malay region, a difference might be revealed which would partly explain why some plant-eating birds have not become established in Micronesia.

GAZETTEER OF ISLANDS OF MICRONESIA

In the following list the name in current usage for each island or island group in Micronesia is followed by other names which have been used. There is no attempt made to list the names of the small islands of each atoll or those of the myriads of small islets that lie offshore from the larger volcanic islands. Collections have not been made on most of the smaller islands. For the few on which a species has been collected, the islet is adequately described in the account of the particular species concerned. The reader may refer to Brigham for a listing of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Most of the islands included in the following list may be located on the map of Micronesia as shown in figures 2, 3, 4, and 5. These listings follow in order of arrangement those in the Civil Affairs Handbooks, published by the United States Navy Department .

MARIANA ISLANDS

The Mariana Islands consist of 14 single islands and one group of three islands. The Marianas are all "high" or volcanic islands. The islands, shown in figure 2, are listed as follows:

PALAU ISLANDS

The Palau Islands consist of 8 large islands, 18 smaller islands, and a large number of minute islets, all enclosed in a single reef system. The northern islands are of volcanic origin; the southern islands are of coralline formation. Angaur, to the south of Peleliu, may be included with the Palau Archipelago. From the standpoint of the avian zoogeography, the coral islands or atolls of Kayangel, Merir, Pulo Anna, Sonsorol, and Tobi are also included. The principal islands, shown in figure 3, are listed below:

Included with the Palau group because of proximity and relationships of the avifauna are the following:

CAROLINE ISLANDS

The Caroline Islands consist of 41 island clusters or isolated islands . These are of coral formation. They are atolls or single islands except for Yap, which is of sedimentary rock, and Kusaie, Ponap?, and Truk, which are of volcanic rock. The principal islands are shown in figure 4 and are listed as follows:

MARSHALL ISLANDS

The Marshall Islands consist of 29 atolls and 5 coral islands without lagoons arranged in two chains, the Ralik and the Radak chains, which extend in a northwesterly to southeasterly direction. No volcanic rocks are exposed in these islands. The principal islands shown in figure 5 are as follows:

ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATION IN MICRONESIA

The Micronesian islands were first explored and colonized by a a people who came from Malaysia. It is thought that these people spread into the Palau, Caroline, Mariana, Marshall, and Gilbert islands as a single wave of migration. Following this occupation, the people apparently underwent a normal process of cultural evolution and differentiation. Remains of stone walls, dikes, fences, pillars, graves, and other structures which may be found today at various islands in Micronesia were constructed by the ancestors of the islanders of the present day. It is thought by archeologists that the Polynesians moved eastward into the Pacific islands by way of Micronesia. The date of this wave of migration is thought to have been approximately 1200 A. D. What kinds of birds may have been exterminated by this earliest of human colonization cannot be ascertained. Edible species, particularly megapodes, rails, and pigeons, probably were eliminated or reduced in numbers, as is indicated by later discussions.

The first Europeans to visit Micronesia, as far as the present writer can ascertain, left no accounts of the birds significant for the study here reported upon. Magellan, on his trip around the world, was the leader of the first party of Europeans who touched at Guam; this was on March 6, 1521. Rota, Agiguan, Saipan, and Tinian were also discovered by this Portuguese sea captain in the service of the king of Spain. Eltano, one of Magellan's lieutenants, revisited the Pacific and stopped at Rota in 1524. After the voyage of Magellan, other seafarers, mostly in the service of Spain, visited the Micronesian islands. The Caroline Islands were apparently first observed by the Portuguese captain, Diego de Rocha, in 1526. Loyasa and Saavdera, both Spaniards, visited the Marshall Islands in 1526 and 1529, respectively.

One of the first travelers to record observations on the bird life was Henry Wilson. Wilson was captain of the schooner "Antelope" which became grounded on a reef in the Palau Islands in August, 1783. He lived with the islanders while the ship was being repaired and kept a journal of his observations . Wilson also visited several other islands in western Micronesia. Adelbert von Chamisso , as naturalist with the Russian expedition in the ship "Rurick," made observations of the animal life in Micronesia in 1817 and 1818. Under the command of Otto von Kotzebue, this Russian expedition made the first detailed exploration of the Marshall Islands; visits were made also to Guam and Rota and to Yap, Fais, Ulithi, Palau, and other island groups in western Micronesia. Freycinet's famous expedition in the ships "Uranie" and "Physicienne," visited Guam, Rota, and Tinian in 1819. Quoy and Gaimard, the naturalists of the expedition, obtained birds, which were among the first to be described from Micronesia. These two naturalists revisited the Marianas in 1829 on board the ship "Astrolabe." Scientific results of both of these expeditions include texts and plates dealing with the birds obtained.

In the years following the middle of the Nineteenth Century, Godeffroy and Sons, of Hamburg, opened branches of its trading firm in Micronesia. Representatives of the company including Heinsohn and Peters, who were ship captains, obtained collections of birds at Palau and Yap. These were deposited in the Godeffroy Museum at Hamburg and reported on by Hartlaub and Finsch . Tetens became representative of Godeffroy and Sons at Yap in 1869 and obtained birds. Perhaps the most famous collector in this period was Johann Kubary. He went to Ponap? at the age of nineteen and traveled in Micronesia for many years for Godeffroy and Sons. He obtained birds at many of the islands of the Carolines, spending fourteen months at Truk. In 1873, one of his collections of some 200 birds was lost in a shipwreck. Hartlaub and Finsch, described much of his material; Nehrkorn reported on nests and eggs which he obtained. Hartlaub and Finsch also reported on birds obtained at Palau by Doctor Semper, which were deposited in the museum at Altona. Otto Finsch traveled in Micronesia about 1880, observing birds in the eastern Carolines and in the Marshalls.

One of the largest collections from Micronesia was made by Alfred Marche in the Marianas. He arrived there on April 22, 1887, and stayed until May, 1889. He obtained approximately 732 specimens of birds, nests, and eggs at Guam, Rota, Tinian, Saipan, Pagan, and Alamagan, which were deposited in the Paris Museum and reported on by Oustalet . Shortly after Marche's visit, Japanese collectors in the hire of Alan Owston, a professional collector of Yokahama, obtained birds in the Marianas and at Truk in the years 1894-'97. These went to the Rothschild collection at Tring and were reported on by Hartert in 1898 and 1900.

At the turn of the Twentieth Century, several ornithologists were visiting Micronesia. Alvin Seale obtained a collection of birds at Guam in the summer of 1900 which was deposited in the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu. The U. S. Fish Commission steamer "Albatross" visited Micronesia from August, 1899, to March, 1900; birds obtained by the expedition were reported on by Townsend and Wetmore . Paul Schnee spent approximately one year, 1899-1900, at Jaluit in the Marshalls and obtained records of birds. In 1899, Brandeis, on board the German ship "Kaiserland" visited many of the islands in the Marshalls and recorded birds. William Safford resided at Guam in the early part of this century and reported on the bird life in the course of his studies of the botany and native life. Bartsch also obtained a small collection of birds at Guam, this is in the United States National Museum.

In the first World War when the Japanese gained a mandated control over the islands of Micronesia, the Japanese ornithologists promptly visited the area, obtained collections, and published works concerning the birds. In 1922, Momiyama and Kuroda prepared a list of the birds of Micronesia. The work was published under the auspices of the Ornithological Society of Japan. Subsequent editions appeared in 1932 and 1942.

The Whitney South Sea Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History visited Micronesia from October, 1930, to December, 1931, with William F. Coultas as collector. Although experiencing some difficulty and being restricted somewhat in his travels by the Japanese officials, he managed to obtain collections at Ponap? , Kusaie , Guam , Saipan and Tinian , and Palau . Many of the species which he obtained are represented by large series of fine skins. Only part of his collections have been reported on by Mayr and his associates.

Other than the work of Coultas and that of the Japanese, there was little ornithological work done in the period between the two world wars, probably, at least in part, because of the "iron curtain," which Japan had thrown about her mandate. Bryan did visit Guam in the middle 1930's and published an account of the birds in the newspaper, Guam Recorder.

TABLE 1. COMPILATION OF THE DATES WHEN ORIGINAL DESCRIPTIONS OF BIRDS OF MICRONESIA APPEARED.

CHECK-LIST OF THE BIRDS OF MICRONESIA

Class AVES--birds

PAGE

Order PROCELLARIIFORMES--albatrosses, petrels, and allies

Family Diomedeidae--albatrosses

Family Procellariidae--petrels and shearwaters

Order PELECANIFORMES--tropic birds, boobies, cormorants, frigate birds and allies

Family Pha?thontidae--tropic birds

Family Sulidae--boobies and gannets

Family Phalacrocoracidae--cormorants

Family Fregatidae--frigate birds or man-o'-war birds

Order CICONIIFORMES--herons, storks, and allies

Family Ardeidae--herons and bitterns

Order ANSERIFORMES--ducks, geese, swans, and allies

Family Anatidae--ducks, geese, and swans

Order FALCONIFORMES--vultures, hawks, falcons

Family Accipitridae--hawks, harriers, and allies

Family Falconidae--falcons and caracaras

Order GALLIFORMES--megapodes, pheasants, and allies

Family Megapodidae--megapodes

Family Phasianidae--quails, pheasants, and allies

Order GRUIFORMES--cranes, rails, and allies

Family Rallidae--rails, gallinules, and coots

Order CHARADRIIFORMES--shorebirds, gulls, and auks

Family Charadriidae--plovers, turnstones, and allies

Family Scolopacidae--snipe, sandpipers, and allies

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