Authors: F. Hannecart & Y. Letocart. 1980. Les Editions Cardinalis. 150 pp.; map and 180 species described.
Geographical variation in the Buff-banded rail (Gallirallus philippensis) in the south-west Pacific (known as the banded rail in New Zealand) is reassessed in the light of the origin of island stocks and nomadism. Nomadism appears to have diluted divergent evolution on small islands and (sub) continental mainlands throughout the region, and from it lines of colonisation from mainland sources have been adduced. There appear to be no justifiable subspecies on mainland Australia, and others on islands in the Bismarck Sea are open to question; one new subspecies, G, p. tounelieri, is described from cays in the Coral Sea.
Auithor: Johan Dalgas Frisch. 1981. Vol. I, 351 pp. with an addendum Birds of Brazil, Identification Guide in the English Language, 15 pp. Dalgas-Ecoltec-Ecologia Tecnica e Comercio Ltda, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The food of honeyeaters (Stitchbird, Bellbird and Tui) was studied on Little Barrier Island in April by collecting droppings and pollen from mist-netted birds. All three species were taking nectar from puriri and climbing rata. Stitchbirds were the most frugivorous and Bellbirds the most insectivorous of the three species.
Authenticated records of chewing (feather) lice, largely from unpublished observations, are listed from birds in the New Zealand zoogeographic subregion, including the Ross Dependency in Antarctica. From a total of 388 host taxa (including 38 introductions), lice are reported from 250 hosts (including 27 introductions). These records comprise 267 lice species and subspecies; a further 138 records are listed at generic level only,
but all these do not necessarily represent separate species. Although some bird groups have been collected from frequently, there are many gaps in our knowledge, even for these hosts. With some orders (e.g. Passeriformes) and families of birds, little or no attention has been paid to their ectoparasites. An appeal is made for assistance in building up collections.
Authors: Charles G. Sibley and Jon E. Ahlquist.
In: Evolution Today, G. G. E. Scudder & J. L. Reveal (eds) . Proceedings
of the Second International Congress of Systematic and Evolutionary
Biology, pp. 301-335. 1981.
During 1980, 2,736 km of coast were patrolled by 146 members of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand and their friends. 4,351 dead seabirds were found. There were no major wrecks. During one patrol Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus griseus) were found at a rate of 68.5 per kilometre. Unusual finds were: Eastern Little Tern (Sterna albifrons), Grey Ternlet (Procelsterna cerulea), Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) and Yellow-nosed Mollymawk (Diomedea chlororhynchos) which is also a new record for the Beach Patrol Scheme.
The first sightings of the North Atlantic (Cory’s) shearwater, Calonectris diomedea (Scopoli, 1769), in the Australasian region were made 47-78 km off the Canterbury Bight on the east coast of the South Island, New Zealand. These birds were
probably vagrants, and the species may also occur sporadically in Australian waters.