6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 124 



The second toe on both feet of one male specimen from Idenburg 

 River (AMNH 339915) is abnormal. It has only two phalanges and 

 lacks the claw. An X-ray shows that the tip of the second phalanx is 

 rounded and spongy. 



Forbes (1882), Mayr (1945a, p. 106), Delacour (1951), Bock (1958), 

 and Bock and Miller (1959) gave examples of related species of birds 

 with three and four toes. I agree with the opinion that the mere loss 

 of one toe is not in itself sufficient reason for separating generically 

 two species that differ only slightly in other characters. The three- 

 toed swiftlet is such a case. It agrees with the other species of Collocalia 

 in all other characters including phalanx formulae (3, 4, 5; see fig. 2) 

 of its remaining toes and in having seven secondaries. 



Other "C. whiteheadi" Records 



There remains to be discussed the C. whiteheadi records from the 

 Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands. Mayr (1935, p. 3) 

 described a single specimen from Guadalcanal as C. lowi orientalis 

 differing from "C. lowi whiteheadi" in being "much darker and with a 

 pale rump; tarsus with a few feathers. . . ." He later (1945b, p. 238) 

 included C. I. orientalis as a race of the species C. whiteheadi (see 

 Peters, 1940, vol. 4, p. 222). I prefer, for the present, to consider C. 

 orientalis as a separate species because it differs from C. papuensis, 

 C. nuditarsus, and C. whiteheadi (North Luzon) in having a pale 

 rump, the fourth toe and tarsus thinly feathered, and a less curved 

 bill. 



Salomonsen (1963, p. 511) regarded C. w. orientalis as a race of 

 C. whiteheadi along with C. w. nuditarsus. In the same paper he 

 described the unique specimen from New Ireland as C. w. leletensis, 

 diagnosed as follows: "Tarsus unfeathered as in nuditarsus, and the 

 colour of the under-parts is also exactly similar to that in nuditarsus. 

 C. w. leletensis differs, however, strikingly from nuditarsus in having a 

 grey, contrasting band across the rump and, also, in having a much 

 stronger and darker bluish gloss on the upper-parts." He also pointed 

 out that C. w. orientalis differs from C. w. leletensis "in having much 

 broader (double as broad) and slightly paler grey rump band; colour 

 of upper-parts exactly as in nuditarsus, without the dark, bluish gloss 

 of leletensis; colour of under-parts as in two preceding forms [nuditarsus 

 and leletensis]; tarsus thinly feathered." 



Although I have not examined the type, I believe that the pale 

 rump indicates the specific affinities of C. w. leletensis better than 

 tarsal feathering and that it is best treated as conspecific with C. 

 orientalis. 



