Discovery of the great call of the Javan gibbon and finding an enclave of the agile gibbon in Kalimantan permit for the first time a comparison of vocalizations among all major taxa of Hylobates. The songs are stereotyped, constant throughout the interrupted areas of distribution of each taxon, and are sexually divocal.

In the year from December, 1944, to December, 1945, I made a zoological collection, chiefly animals of medical interest, on the islands of Saipan, Tinian, Guam and Palau in Micronesia. These were obtained for the United States Army Medical Museum. Birds were collected incidentally to procuring a collection of mammals and their ectoparasites; they were turned over to the United States National Museum by the Army Medical Museum. Richard E. Genelly worked with me on Tinian and generously provided the photographs used in this paper. In my spare time I recorded field observations and prepared series of study skins, some skeletons and alcoholics of birds which were sent to the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Through the courtesy of Herbert Friedmann of the United States National Museum the first-mentioned bird skins were loaned to the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology where the following account of the endemic land and fresh-water species was prepared. It is based upon the 579 specimens collected by Genelly and myself and upon my field notes. An effort was made to obtain the maximum information possible from each bird specimen. Color of soft parts, degree of completion of the skull roof, size of gonads, stomach contents, amount of fat and stage in the molt sequence were recorded. I searched also for blood parasites in the species taken on Saipan and Tinian. Further information was obtained, though not reported here. Samuel A. Edgar identified intestinal parasites and Henry S. Dybas identified arthropods in the stomachs and collected ectoparasites, which were sent to the National Museum. HABITATS Sept., 1949 AVIFAUNA OF MICRONESL4N ISLANlX 201(5) Savannah is found near the airstrip on Babelthuap, Palau, and consists of bunch grasses and ferns two or three feet high separated from each other by bare soil.(6) Woodland covers the major portion of the islands (fig. 36). A rich assortment of broad-leaved trees, differing somewhat as to component species on each island, grow close together and provide a continuous leafy canopy 30 to 100 feet above the ground. On Palau this forest is densest, and there is only a sparse understory vegetation. Here the forest is composed of two elements: gigantic multiple-stemmed trees with widely spreading dense crowns, growing about 100 yards apart and extending high above the level of the surrounding vegetation; and shorter trees forming a more or less interrupted canopy between the former, depending on the irregularities and steepness of the terrain. ENDEMIC SPECIESThe little Pied Cormorant (Phalacrocorax melanoleucus) is found on Palau in mangrove lagoons and small fresh-water ponds inland where they spend much time sitting upright on dead branches. Individuals or small groups are often seen in flight over the inland forests. A specimen taken from a tree at the edge of a stream on Babelthuap had eaten a crayfish. Fig. 35. Coastal shrubbery at Marpo Point, Tinian Island. (birds were gray-colored ; fig. 37) and was watched foraging in lagoons on Guam. Here the birds had been spending the heat of the...

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. University of California Press andAmerican Ornithologists' Union are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Ornithological Monographs. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 91.229.248.154 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 20:12:33 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsFrontispiece: Otus icterorhynchusl stresemanni of Sumatra, with apologies to G. M. Sutton and The Birds of Arizona. The absence of wings, far from implying flightlessness, emphasizes the important parts of the plumage for species comparisons -the interscapulars and flanks. These "control" the more variable patterns of head and wings, which will always be in harmony with the basic pattern of back and flanks. This content downloaded from 91.229.248.154 on Wed

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I had the good fortune to observe the Flammulated Screech Owl (Otus flammeolus) during the summer of 1938 at two localities, both in the Sequoia National Forest of the Sierra Nevada, in Tulare County, California. The first locality is the vicinity of Whitaker' s Forest (property of The University of California) on the west slope of Redwood Mountain. The life-zone is Transition, consisting of open forest of yellow pine, white fir, incense cedar, and black oak which lies just below the heavy stands of big tree, Sequoia gigantea. The results of observations made here from May 20 to July 9 and from August 6 to 15 are summarized on the accompanying map (fig. 26) and table (p. 73 ) . I found at least eighteen males, of which six were collected. Their territories, shown on the map, fall within an area of about two square miles between the altitudes of 4850 feet and 5800 feet. Females were heard or seen in five of these territories. One juvenal was obtained from campers near Whitaker' s Forest. The dates of observation (both successful and ' attempted) of each individual are listed in the table. The second locality is in the Canadian zone timber (Jeffrey pine, lodgepole pine and red fir) at Big Meadow, 7659 feet altitude, five miles east of Whitaker' s Forest. Four males were collected and one female was heard on July 10. These were found within an area of fifty acres. The female was heard there again on August 15. The eleven specimens from both localities are now numbers 74629-39 in the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.Success in locating, collecting, and observing the Flammulated Screech Owls depended on the use of a special method; namely, attracting them by uttering imitations of their hoots. Males readily answered these calls; but their shyness and their habit of concealing themselves in high, dense trees allowed no glimpse of them until their curiosity or antagonism was aroused by a long "conversation." Then they would follow me, uttering their curious "protest calls," and would allow themselves to be led into low trees and watched with the aid of a flashlight.The eye-shine of this species of owl varies in color from pinkish at middle distances to white at long range. At close range, no eye-shine is visible because the bird' s pupil contracts when a bright light falls upon it. I watched one bird at a distance of six feet, and noticed that a full eye-shine was visible for but a moment when the light was first turned on. Almost immediately, the pupils contracted; thereafter only two very small points of light were reflected. When the bird turned toward the darkness, a pinkish glint was reflected through the now widened pupil of the one visible eye.The single hoot of the male Flammulated Screech Owl is uttered at regular intervals, constant in each individual but varying from a little over two seconds to more than eight seconds in different birds. The hoots are short, uninflected vowel sounds like 00 in hoot. Their approach to a staccato effect can be represented by the words poop, poop, poop. Their pitch, fair...