GENERAL NOTES

A new of Island , Turdus poliocephalus, from .--The islands of the BismarckArchipelago, north and eastof , althoughlarge and with low mountains,have always seemeddeficient in populationsof the very widespread speciesof thrush, the Island Thrush, distributed from ChristmasIsland and the Greater $unda Islands southand eastto . Only one named form hasbeen known from this Archipelago,and that from oneof the smallerislands, Saint Matthias, with a high point of about 800 m above sealevel. No representativeof the speciesis known from the very large island of , with mountainsreaching 1,800+ m, although severalornithologists have worked there, most recently the late E. T. Gilllard for the American Museum of Natural History in 1958--59. Consequentlythe discoveryof an Island Thrush on New Ireland, a long, narrow island little visited by naturalists, with mountainsreaching some 1,700 m along its central spine, is a matter of considerable zoogeographical interest.

Turdus poliocephalus beehleri subsp.nov.

TYPE:adult male; United StatesNational Museum of Natural History no. 522762; 15 km NNW of Cape Narum, Hans Meyer Range, elevation2,200 m (5,600 ft), New Ireland; 13 February 1976;collected by Bruce Beehler; field number BB 727. D•ACNOS•S:from heinrothi Rothschildand Hartert of St. Matthias Island (known from the unique ), this new subspeciesdiffers in shorter wing and tail and a smaller, more slender bill, and in having an olivaceouswash on the upper parts (possiblya fugitive character,lacking in older, badly foxedspecimens). The chin and upper throat are grayish-brown.The lores, around the eyes,an indistinctstripe continued back below the blackish cap, and shadingdown over the auricular region to the lower throat are coloreda slightly deepershade of umber grayish-brown.Although foxing makesthe definition of sucha pattern difficult in the type of heinrothi, there is no obviousindication of suchshading around the head. Unfortu- nately the throat feathersin the type of heinrothi are virtually absent. No comparisonbetween females is possible,but size alone separatesthese two populations(Table 1). The next nearestpopulations occur in the adjacent SolomonIslands, the most northerly of which, Bougainville,forms part of Papua-New Guineapolitically also. From bougainvilleiMayr, beehleridiffers by beingdistinctly smaller, with a moreslim bill, lessstout in appearancelaterally. In colorthe gray-brown around the bill, lores and back around the eyes, chin and upper throat in the male is totally unlike the monochromatic black of the males from . The other SolomonIslands subspeciesin north to southorder, kulambangraeMayr from Kulambangra Island, sladeni Cain and Galbraith from GuadalcanalIsland, and rennellianusMayr from are similarlyblackish and monochromaticin the male, althoughthe capcolor in sladeniis of a differenttone from the back, settingit off by contrast.Additionally the undertailcoverts and crissumof Rennellmales may havea few palespots. These three more southern subspecies are smallerthan bougainvillei thus being similar in size to beehleri.

TABLE 1 MEASUREMENTS

Wing Tail Culmen Tarsus Weight beehleri 2 c• ad. 104, 105 mm 78, 80.5 mm 19, 22 mm 34, 36 mm 47.8, 52.5 g 9 ad. 97 75 20 32.5 49.5 d' imm. 97 76.5 22 33 48 heinrothi d' (type) 110 83 24 34 -- bougainvillei• 4 d' ad. 111-114 82-87 23-23.5 30-31 -- 3 9 ad. 108 79-80 ------sladeni d' imm. 106 86 22 32 -- kulambangrae d' ad. 103 71 22 32 -- rennellianus 2 c• ad. 103.5, 106 75, 80 22.5, 23 31.5, 32 -- 9 ad. 103.5 73.5 22 31 -- papuensis 3 d' ad. 120-132 85-105 23-25 35-40 -- From Mayr 1941, Amer. Mus. Novitates 1152:2. 772 October 1977] GeneralNotes 773

Femalesof the available seriesfrom the Solomonsforms differ from beehleri in being more uniform in colorthroughout, whereas an apparentadult femalefrom New Ireland hasa darker cap setoff from the very darkolive-fuscous back, and a brownishpatch on the upper abdomen, the feathers edged with palerbrown. Frompapuensisof adjacentmainland New Guinea,beehleri differs by smallersize, and lacking the broad concolorous,lighter brown sides of head, neck, and upper breast, found in both sexesof that form. ETYMOLOGY:named for Bruce Beehler, now a graduatestudent at PrincetonUniversity, who collected material for the Smithsonian'sNational Museum of Natural History while working at the Wau Ecology Institute, . COMMENTS:an isolatedmontane form known only from the typedocalitybut probably occurringin stuntedmossy forest on the summitsof the ridgesof mountainson New Ireland, Papua-New Guinea. I am grateful to the authorities of the Department of the America Museum of Natural History, New York, for permissionto examinespecimens in their care.--S. DILLONRIPLEY, Smithsonian Institution, Wash- ingtonD.C. 20560. Accepted30 Mar. 77. (This paper was subsidizedby the author.)

Copulation Observed in Maroon-tailed Parakeets in Meta, Colombia.--To my knowledge copulation in the Maroon-tailed Parakeet (Pyrrhura melanura) has not been describedin the literature. The followingis a descriptionof thisbehavior I watchedon 25January 1976 near Campamiento Chamusa on the Duda River, La MacarenaNational Park, Meta, Colombia(2ø42'N, 74ø10'W;alt. 250 m). The birdswere observed at less than 30-m distance with the aid of 12 x binoculars. At 0723 two Maroon-tailed Parakeetslanded 20 m abovethe groundin the dead branchesof a living tree on the southbank of the Duda River. The birdswere 1.5-2 m apart. At 0725 the male flew over to join the female. Mutual bodygrooming of the neckand back beganimmediately and continuedfor 1 min. At 0726 the femalepresented herself to the maleby stretchingout, on top of and parallelto the supportingbranch, with her posteriortoward the male.The malequickly mounted the female by steppingup ontoher rump and lowerback, placinghis long pointed tail downwardon the right sideof the female'sbody. The femalethen movedher tail outwardto the left side,facilitating the placementof the male'scloaca in contactwith hers. During copulationthe male'stail and lower backrotated slowly in a clockwisedirection and he ruffled the female'sneck feathers with hisbill. The femaleresponded to the male'sbehavior by remainingstill and emittingapproximately 12 low "cooing"calls. At 0728:30the maledismounted to the rear after beingon top of the femalefor 2.5 min. He immediately"pumped" his head and neck,with thefeathers ruffed, up and downvigorously 7 or 8 times.Both returned to normalperching positions. The maleinitiated mutual groomingagain, which lastedfor about30 sec.At 0729 both birdsmoved apart, beganlow raucouscalling and flew away simultaneouslyacross the river to the north. The female flew slightly ahead of the male.--THOMAS O. LEMKE,Institute for the Developmentof Renewable Natural Resources(INDERENA), Smithsonian-PeaceCorps EnvironmentalProgram, % American Embassy,Bogotd, Colombia. Ac- cepted 7 July 76.

Nesting behavior of Pale-billed Woodpeckers in Guatemala.--Between 22 Januaryand 3 February 1976,while stayingat Tikal, Guatemala,I observedlate stagesof the nestingbehavior of 3 pairsof Pale-billedWoodpeckers (Campephilus guatemalensis). Table 1 givesdetails of the nests.Skutch (1969, PacificCoast Avifauna 35: 440) has given a previousaccount of thisspecies. The following,however, appear to be aspectsof behavior not reported by others. (1) Feeding visits.--My wife and I watched nest A in times divided between midmorningsand late afternoons.The singlenestling fledged 8 daysafter observations began. Of 35 feedingvisits seen in 13h, 18 wereby thefemale and 17by the male.Intervals between visits averaged 22 min, but variedbetween none in 1« h to 6, all by the male, in 36 min. (2) Prey.--The entranceto nestA, where the youngone was fed, was low (Table 1) and favorablefor observation.We couldthus see that on 22 of the 35 visitsthe prey broughtby parentsconsisted of a single whitelarva, approximately0.6 cmin diameterand 3-4 cmlong, sufficiently large to preventthe mandibles fromclosing. One thrust of theparent's bill wasusually enough to transferthe prey to thenestling. Parents also carried large larvae to nest B. (3) Beggingnotes.--The young in nestA peeredfrequently from the holebefore fledging. It made "chittery"notes (apparently begging) on seeing a parent approaching, while being fed, and after a parenthad left but wasstill in view. Whenalone at othertimes, the youngone remained silent. (4)Fledging.--The nestling of nest C leanedout from the nest hole on the day before fledging, making loud "kuk-kuk-kwirra"notes. It calledat 0704on the following morning when it flewfrom the hole to a tree5 m