2008 Volume 40 Issue 1 Pages 13-22
A fresh corpse of the Black-chinned Fruit Dove Ptilinopus leclancheri was collected on Iriomote Island of the Ryukyu Islands, southwestern Japan (24°15′13′′N, 123°52′15′′E), on 26 August 2004 immediately after the passage of a typhoon. This is the first record of this species in Japan, whose normal range is Taiwan or the Philippines. Considering the geographic and atmospheric circumstances, it is most probable that the bird arrived at Iriomote Island accidentally. The undeveloped small ovary and the slightly ossified skull strongly suggest this individual to have been a juvenile female. Comparative measurements of three Taiwanese specimens and the Japanese one were newly taken and compared with literature on this species. All four specimens shared similar measurements, especially in terms of the distinctively long culmen, which is suggestive of subspecies P. l. taiwanus, although the subspecies status had been suspected to be wrongly attributed to vagrant individuals with abnormal characters.
