Browsing by Author "Amadon, Dean."
Now showing 1 - 20 of 21
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Avian systematics and evolution in the Gulf of Guinea : the J.G. Correia collection. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 100, article 3(New York : [American Museum of Natural History], 1953) Amadon, Dean.; Correia, José G., d. 1954.; Correia, José G., Mrs.; Thorne-Correia Expedition (1928-1929)"Systematic notes on a large collection of birds made on three of the four islands in the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa ... by Mr. and Mrs. J.G. Correia are presented. Complete lists of the land and fresh-water birds of the four islands are given, and it is indicated which forms are endemic on the various islands, and which races (three in number) are described from the islands (in every case Fernando Po) as new in this paper. In addition, Cyanomitra cyanolaema octaviae and Oriolus nigripennis alleni are described as new from the mainland of West Africa. The following additional taxonomic changes are proposed: that the genera Lampribis and Hagadashia be united with Bostrychia; that Creciscus be united with Crex; that the following races, usually synonymized, be recognized: Accipiter castanilius beniensis, Tyto alba poensis, Stizorhina fraseri rubicunda from West Africa to separate it from the nominate race, which proves to be restricted to Fernando Po, Chalcomitra rubescens stangerii from Fernando Po, Malimbus rubricollis rufovelatus from Fernando Po, and Lamprocolius splendidus lessoni from Fernando Po. Two insular kingfishers, thomensis and nais, of the genus Alcedo (Corythornis) are made races of leucogaster, rather than of cristatus. Fernando Po has an avifauna like that of West Africa with which it was once united, but less rich. Isolation has been great enough to produce endemic races in about 30 percent of the resident species, but there is only one endemic species and no endemic genus. Principe and São Tomé are much more isolated and were never connected with the mainland, from which they differ ecologically to a considerable extent. A number of endemic species and a few endemic genera, as well as endemic races, are found on these two islands. Two of the genera, one genus from each island, are distinct enough to offer some difficulties as regards family assignment. Principe and São Tomé share a number of endemic species, yet each has a number of characteristic endemics lacking on the other. Faunal relationships to Fernando Po are very slight, and each of the three islands has, to a large extent, derived its fauna independently from the mainland. No consistent trends in color character are apparent in the avifaunas of these islands. The birds of Fernando Po are often slightly larger and longer billed than those of West Africa. On Principe and São Tomé similar trends are noticeable and have progressed further, so that several of the endemic forms are very large for the groups in which they belong. But there are exceptions, for example, the dwarf ibis of São Tomé (Bostrychia bocagei). None of the environmental rules seems adequate to explain the trend towards larger size in such a large segment of the birds of the Gulf islands, and it is suggested that intraspecific rivalry for mates or for food under insular conditions (empty ecological niches, relative absence of predation) may have selected for increased size. In a few cases only, where double colonizations are involved, does interspecific competition appear to have been important in this respect. In such cases, one of a pair of competing species will, of course, be selected for smaller rather than larger size. Increase in size of the bill, a common phenomenon in these insular birds, is in some cases due to allometric correlation with general size. In other cases it may be due to direct selection for a larger bill, either for feeding or for gaining dominance over other individuals of the same species. 'Compensation' may be involved. The São Tomé giant sunbird, Cyanomitra thomensis, is shown to be an excellent example of several aspects of allometry and also of the increase in sexual dimorphism in size which, as Rensch has recently pointed out, often characterizes the larger species of a related group"--P. 449.Item Birds collected during the Whitney South Sea Expedition. 46, Geographical variation in Demigretta sacra (Gmelin). American Museum novitates ; no. 1144(New York City : The American Museum of Natural History, 1941) Mayr, Ernst, 1904-; Amadon, Dean.; Whitney South Sea Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History (1920-1941)Item Birds collected during the Whitney South Sea Expedition. 49, Notes on some non-passerine genera. 1. American Museum novitates ; no. 1175(New York City : The American Museum of Natural History, 1942) Amadon, Dean.; Whitney South Sea Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History (1920-1941)Item Birds collected during the Whitney South Sea Expedition. 50, Notes on some non-passerine genera. 2. American Museum novitates ; no. 1176(New York City : The American Museum of Natural History, 1942) Amadon, Dean.; Whitney South Sea Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History (1920-1941)Item Birds collected during the Whitney South Sea Expedition. 52, Notes on some non-passerine genera. 3. American Museum novitates ; no. 1237(New York City : The American Museum of Natural History, 1943) Amadon, Dean.; Whitney South Sea Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History (1920-1941)Item Birds of the Archbold Biological Station, Lake Placid, Florida. American Museum novitates ; no. 1790(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1956) Amadon, Dean.; Archbold Biological Station.Item A classification of Recent birds. American Museum novitates ; no. 1496(New York : American Museum of Natural History, 1951) Mayr, Ernst, 1904-; Amadon, Dean.; Rothschild, Lionel Walter Rothschild, Baron, 1868-1937.Item The genera of Corvidae and their relationships. American Museum novitates ; no. 1251(New York City : The American Museum of Natural History, 1944) Amadon, Dean.Item The genera of starlings and their relationships. American Museum novitates ; no. 1247(New York City : The American Museum of Natural History, 1943) Amadon, Dean.Item The Hawaiian honeycreepers (Aves, Drepaniidae). Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 95, article 4(New York : [American Museum of Natural History], 1950) Amadon, Dean.Item Notes on the birds of Fernando Poo Island, Spanish Equatorial Africa. American Museum novitates ; no. 1846(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1957) Amadon, Dean.; Basilio, Aurelio.Item Notes on the honey buzzards of eastern Asia. American Museum novitates ; no. 2111(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1962) Vaurie, Charles.; Amadon, Dean."The systematics of the honey buzzards of eastern Asia are discussed. Two races (aside from those of the East Indies) are recognized: Pernis ptilorhyncus orientalis in Japan and northeastern Asia, where it is highly migratory, and, separated from it by a gap, P. p. ruficollis of India, Ceylon, and the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, which is somewhat migratory"--P. 10.Item Notes on the Mathews' collection of Australian birds. The order Ciconiiformes. American Museum novitates ; no. 1564(New York : American Museum of Natural History, 1952) Amadon, Dean.; Woolfenden, Glen Everett, 1930-; Mathews, Gregory M. (Gregory Macalister), 1876-1949.Item A preliminary life history study of the Florida jay, Cyanocitta c. coerulescens. American Museum novitates ; no. 1252(New York City : The American Museum of Natural History, 1944) Amadon, Dean.; Archbold Biological Station."The Florida jay (Cyanocitta c. coerulescens) was studied from March 27 to April 29 near Lake Placid, Florida. Though a short-winged species it takes many short flights and more rarely longer ones. Most of its time is spent in hopping in open areas or among the twigs of bushes in search of food or in perching. Unlike most bush-inhabiting species it is bold and becomes very tame. It buries food usually by thrusting it beneath the sand without digging a hole, but was once observed to drive a hard piece of food beneath the sand with blows of its bill. Leaves or other small objects are placed over the spot where food is buried. In searching for buried food the jay swings its head from side to side throwing the sand to either side with the bill. Hard objects are held in the feet and broken with the bill; often certain projecting roots or similar objects are habitually used for this purpose. Frustration or rage is expressed by striking on the perch with the bill and by screeching. The male is much more aggressive. Acorns presumably buried the preceding autumn were being consumed in numbers, but the bulk of the food was animal matter. Insects are captured both in bushes and on the ground, sometimes after spirited pursuits. A variety of calls, chiefly harsh, are given and also a peculiar, evidently mechanically produced 'hiccuping.' The latter is given usually, if not exclusively, by the female and serves as a threat to other jays and probably in other ways. A whisper song is given by both sexes and seems to express either physical well being or mild perplexity. Males in a courtship display were twice observed to hop, with head elevated and tail spread and dragging, around females. Both of these pairs practiced courtship feeding and presumably were in a pre-nest-building or at least pre-incubation period of the reproductive cycle. Courtship feeding is continued through incubation and to some extent after the young hatch. Both sexes participate in nest building, but there is a tendency for males to do less than females. One nest was completed in six days and another in four days, although a little was added to it on the fifth day. The former was a second nest, and the first egg was laid on the eighth day after it was begun. Nest-building attentive periods varied from 30 to over 158 minutes each and inattentive periods from 25 to 113 minutes. Inattentive periods were usually spent about one-third mile from the nest; the time was spent in feeding, resting, and preening, or squabbling with other jays; courtship feeding occurred at infrequent intervals. Nest-building periods comprised about three-fourths of the total (daylight) time. Only the female incubates. At a repeat nest the female spent most of the two-day period between the finishing of the nest and the laying of the first egg in perching or brooding on the nest. Incubation, or at least light brooding, starts with the first egg. The observed females spent about 80 or 90 per cent of their time incubating; attentive periods usually vary from 10 to 60 minutes but one of 106 was recorded; inattentive periods are usually of less than 5 minutes. One male usually fed his mate at the nest once or twice during each attentive period, but at another nest only one feeding was recorded. The male spends much time on a conspicuous perch near the nest, but is often absent from the nest vicinity; his behavior except when feeding his mate on the nest does not seem to be correlated with his mate's incubating rhythm to any great extent. Both sexes share in feeding the young, but the female alone broods. Young are fed two or three times an hour during the first week, and this gradually is increased to five to twelve by the second week. Up to the termination of observation when the oldest young were about fifteen days old, they were brooded more than half of the time, partly, it seemed, to protect them from the sun. At one nest the female fluttered her wings and begged when the male brought food. She usually received part of it, and both shared in feeding the young. After feeding, the parents wait for the appearance of fecal sacs; these are eaten or carried away. During all phases of the nesting cycle jays sometimes attack other jays which approach the vicinity of their nest. Stuffed jays and also a screech owl were attacked, but a stuffed blackbird was ignored. However, some jays are ignored near the nest; such birds were apparently non-breeding birds. The latter were sometimes observed to beg from mated males but were never fed. Others have observed such birds to aid in feeding the young in a nest, but this is probably unusual. Noisy groups of jays exhibiting much squabbling and antagonism were observed daily, but their significance is obscure. A second nest was begun two or three days after the disappearance of the eggs (incubation about eight or nine days) from a first nest. One pair deserted after a normal clutch of three had been laid, when an egg was removed from the nest each day to keep the total at one"--P. 20-21.Item Remarks on the starlings, family Sturnidae. American Museum novitates ; no. 1803(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1956) Amadon, Dean.Item A review of the Dicaeidae. American Museum novitates ; no. 1360(New York City : The American Museum of Natural History, 1947) Mayr, Ernst, 1904-; Amadon, Dean.Item A revision of the sub-buteonine hawks (Accipitridae, Aves). American Museum novitates ; no. 2741(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1982) Amadon, Dean."This paper is a taxonomic review of the 25 species and approximately 10 genera of chiefly Neotropical hawks called sub-buteonines and allied to the more advanced genus Buteo. Generic diagnoses supported by logarithmic ratio diagrams of measurements are presented along with comments on intraspecific variation in a few of the species. Changes from usual treatment include recognition of the genus Asturina, merger of the genus Heterospizias with Buteogallus, and transfer of the genus Geranospiza to the sub-buteonines. Finally, the broad systematics of the chief components of the family Accipitridae and the place of the sub-buteonine group within it are discussed"--P. [1].Item The subspecies of Tinamus tao and Tinamus solitarius (Aves). American Museum novitates ; no. 1955(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1959) Amadon, Dean.Item Taxonomic notes on birds of prey. American Museum novitates ; no. 2166(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1964) Amadon, Dean.Item Taxonomic notes on the Australian butcher-birds (family Cracticidae). American Museum novitates ; no. 1504(New York : American Museum of Natural History, 1951) Amadon, Dean.