ART. 10 BIRDS OF PINCHOT EXPEDITION FISHER AND WETMORE 45 



about some steep cliffs, where they may have been breeding. Certain 

 phases of their flight strongly suggest that of the nighthawk. 

 At Toau the only one seen was the specimen taken. 



MEGALOPTERUS MINUTUS MINUTUS (Boie) 



Pacific white-capped noddy 



Anous minutus Boie, Isis, 1844, p. 188. (Nova Hollandia=Raine Island, 

 Northeast Australia."") 



Two males and a female from Toau, in the Tuamotu group, taken 

 October 5 and 6, 1929, measure as follows: Males, wing, 226.0, 224.0; 

 tail, 117.8, 115.8; culmen, 42.5, 45.3; tarsus, 20.4, 21.3 mm. Female, 

 wing, 228.0; tail, 120.8; culmen, 42.6; tarsus, 21.0 mm. 



Various names are at present current for birds of this species 

 from various parts of the Pacific area, some of which certainly are 

 not valid. With material lacking from many of the localities con- 

 cerned it is not practicable at this time to attempt definite revision 

 of the group but as has elsewhere been stated,^^ birds from the area 

 south of the Hawaiian group, Wake, Marcus, and the Caroline Islands 

 apparently should be known as Megalopterus minutus minutus 

 (Boie) with a range from eastern Australia across to the Tuamotus, 

 and possibly Cocos Island, since there is little evident in available 

 descriptions and in the few specimens seen to distinguish geographic 

 races in this region. The single bird at hand from Cocos Island, 

 a female taken June 6, 1929, by A. K. Fisher, which should repre- 

 sent the race diamesus^^^ differs from skins from the Tuamotus only 

 in being faintly lighter than most, a difference so slight as to be ap- 

 parently individual. This specimen has the following measurements : 

 Wing, 230.0; tail, 123.5; culmen, 42.5; tarsus, 20.8 mm. 



ANGUS STOLIDUS PILEATUS (Scopoli) 



Pacific noddy 



Sterna pileata Scopoli; Del. Flor. Faun. Insubr., pt. 2, 1786, p. 92. (Philip- 

 pines. ) 



Two females were obtained, one at Nulmhiva in the Marquesas 

 September 26, and one at Toau in the Tuamotus October 5, 1929. 

 The skin from Nukuhiva has the following measurements: Wing, 

 283.0; tail, 167.0; culmen, 39.6; tarsus, 23.7 mm. 



The specimen from Toau is in partial molt. The two species of 

 noddies observed at Toau, Tuamotu Islands, were common and in 



»" See Mathews, Syst. Av. Austr., pt. 1, June 13, 1927, p. 146. 



" Wetmore, Alexander, Ibis, 1925, pp. 826, 827. 



^ Micranous diamesus Heller and Snodgrass, Condor, 1901, p. 76. (Cocos Island.) 



