2 p. ; 24 cm.Includes bibliographical references

Archbold Expedition to New Guinea 1938-1939)

Archbold, Richard.

Rand, Austin Loomer, 1905-

Richardson, William B.

American Museum of Natural History Scientific Publications

AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATESNumber 1122Published byTHE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORYNew York CityJune 11, 1941RESULTS OF THE ARCHBOLD EXPEDITIONS. NO. 33A NEW RACE OF QUAIL FROM NEW GUINEA; WITH NOTES ON THEORIGIN OF THE GRASSLAND AVIFAUNABY A. L. RANDThe following is a description of a newquail discovered in the Snow Mountainsby the 1938-1939 New Guinea expedition,with a note on the origin of grassland areasin New Guinea.Excalfactoria chinensis novaeguineae,new subspeciesTYPE-.No. 306382, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.;e ad.; at 1600 meters on the Balim River,Snow Mountains, Netherland New Guinea;December 15, 1938; Richard Archbold, A. L.Rand and W. B. Richardson.DIAGNOSIS.-Intermediate between australisand papuensis in the male by having the brightvaried pattern of the upperparts like australisand the distribution of color of the underpartsas in papuensis. The male differs from speci-mens of australis from Queensland and NewSouth Wales in having the chestnut area in theabdomen of lesser extent; and in its averageslightly smaller size (wing-61-68 mm. against68-76 mm.). The male differs from examplesof papuensis from Mafulu in having both thechestnut and the blue-gray of the underpartspaler; in having the pale central crown stripeprominent; in the gray-brown edgings to therest of the crown feathers being pronounced;in the rest of the upperparts having a muchbrighter, varied pattern, with the lighter brownmarkings conspicuous and the light coloredshaft streaks more evident; in the scapulars andwing coverts being much less bluish. In the fe-male very similar to australis; differs from papu-ensis from Mafulu in having the brown markingsof the upperparts somewhat brighter.WING.- e (10) 61-68 mm. (av. 65.6); 9(10) 65-70 (av. 67).RANGE.-Known only from the BalimValley, between 1600 and 2200 metersaltitude.REMARKS.-It is interesting that whilethis race approaches the Australian race inthe color of the upperparts, the birds ex-amined from the lowlands of south NewGuinea show no such tendency, and arevery similar to typical papuensis.The Balim Valley, from which this newrace of a strictly grassland bird is known,contains an area of completely isolatedgrassland averaging about 10 miles wideby 40 long, and varies from 1200 to 2400meters in altitude. Since six species ofgrassland birds are known to occur com-monly in this ecologically isolated habitat,it is interesting to consider the possibleorigin of this area of grassland, and itsbirds.Physically' this valley lies in part northof Mt. Wilhelmina, one of the highest peaksof the Snow Mountains, but it breaksthrough the central range and drains to thesouth coast of New Guinea by way of theReiger River. An area of broken moun-tains separates it from the lowlands ofnorth New Guinea. Though this area ofgrassland is isolated, there are, scatteredover the New Guinea mountain valleys,both to the east and the west, similar areasof mid-mountain grassland, and in the low-,lands of north New Guinea are swamps andother types of grass areas. In south NewGuinea there are also extensive savannaareas (for references to maps and com-ments see Rand and Brass, 1940, Bull.Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., LXXVII, pp.373-376).The savannas of south New Guinea areundoubtedly an extension to New Guineaof the "open forest" climax of Australia(Rand and Brass, loc. cit.). The grassymarshes are not climax, but their presenceis of long standing, though their area andposition are continually shifting. The restof the more or less stable areas of grass-lands (below alpine grassland) in New1 For a description of the Balim Valley see Arch-bold, 1941, Nat. Geog. Mag., LXXIX, pp. 315-338.AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATESGuinea are probably the result of man'scontinued activities. Certainly this istrue of the grasslands the Archbold Expe-ditions have examined in the Snow Moun-tains, in southeast, and in north NewGuinea.This brings us to the question as to howthere are birds, some of them endemic,living in these areas of secondary grassland.The most evident solution is that dis-cussed by Rand and Brass (loc. cit.) andArchbold and Rand, 1935, Bull. Amer.Mus. Nat. Hist., LXVIII, pp. 534, 556,557. There have always been small areasof disturbed conditions, on eroded areas,on landslips, where trees have fallen, wherestreams have shifted their course, and inmarshes. Though always changing theirposition they are always present. And itis in such places that examples of openground flora and fauna exist in a virginforest. Man, extending disturbed con-ditions over a larger area, simply extendsthe available area in which these colonizersof disturbed conditions can spread.It may be well to consider the distribu-tion and affinities in New Guinea of thegrassland birds occurring in the BalimValley.The species Lonchura terrinki is knownonly from the Balim Valley; its exact rela-tions are difficult to determine, but it isone of a group of boldly patterned NewGuinea Lonchuras. Excalfactoria chinen-sis novaeguineae is known only from theBalim Valley; it is intermediate betweenpapuensis from southeast and south NewGuinea and the Australian australis (seeabove). Malurus alboscapulatus balim isalso known only from the Balim Valley;its relationships are plainly with the southNew Guinea races of the species.Saxicola caprata belensis is known fromthe mountains of southeast New Guineaand the Balim Valley; another form re-places it on the Huon Peninsula and innorth New Guinea near Hollandia. Cisti-cola exilis diminuta occurs in southeastand south New Guinea as well as the BalimValley; another form occurs in north NewGuinea near Hollandia. Megalurus timo-riensis macrurus occurs in the Balim Valleyand southeast New Guinea; quite differentraces replace it in north, south and westNew Guinea.There are also several species of grass-land birds which occur at similar altitudesin southeast New Guinea, and might beexpected in the Balim Valley, such asLonchura grandis, Synoicus ypsilophorus,Lanius schach and Mirafra javanica, butwhich were not found there despite exten-sive hunting.The main point the ornithological databring out is that the different species ofgrassland birds probably have colonizedthe Balim Valley at different times: onehas been there long enough to developspecific characters; two subspecific char-acters, and one of these latter definitelyhas closer relationship with south NewGuinea, the other not; three others havenot been isolated long enough to differenti-ate races; two of these have relationshipwith southeast New Guinea. There arealso other species which have not yet ap-peared in the Balim Valley, but may be ex-pected.This indicates colonizing. But the ques-tion of the antiquity of this colonizing froman ornithological standpoint can only in-volve one in a fruitless argument as to howlong it takes for a species or a subspeciesto evolve. There is definite evidence fromthe ecological aspects, showing that man'sactivities are maintaining and spreadingthese grasslands; we have seen them invarious stages of formation (Brass, Jour.Arnold Arboretum, in press) and the in-ference is fairly sure that they are second-ary. Indirectly we can conclude that thegrassland birds of the mid-mountainsoriginally inhabited savannas, marshes, orsmall, shifting areas of disturbed condi-tions, and with the activities of man ex-tending these, the birds have spread tooccupy them. The endemism of some, thepresence of some non-endemics and theabsence of some species for which the areaseems suitable, indicate a gradual coloniza-tion. It seems to have come from the eastor the south, not the north or west.2 [No. 1122

Notes on the origin of the grassland avifauna

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