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Golden white-eye
The golden white-eye (''Cleptornis marchei'') is a species of bird in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. It is the only species within the genus ''Cleptornis''. The golden white-eye was once considered to be a honeyeater in the family Meliphagidae and although it is now known to be a white-eye, its position within that family is still uncertain. The species is restricted to the islands of Saipan and Aguijan in the Northern Mariana Islands, where it is sympatric (shares its range) and competes with the related bridled white-eye. The golden white-eye has golden plumage and a pale eye-ring. It feeds on insects, fruit, and nectar and forages in pairs or small family groups. The bird is monogamous and lays two eggs in a small cup nest.
Fossil evidence shows the golden white-eye once also occurred on Tinian and Rota but was extirpated in those locations through the impact of human activities. Despite its current abundance on Saipan and Aguijan, and the fact that it has among the highest recorded densities for any bird, it is nevertheless considered to be critically endangered. It is threatened by the invasive brown tree snake, which has become established on nearby Guam, and this predator is expected to cause a rapid decline in the population if it reaches Saipan. Efforts are under way to control the snakes and breed the white-eye in zoos.
==Taxonomy==
The species was once called the golden honeyeater as it was considered to be a honeyeater (Meliphagidae). It was placed within the genus ''Ptilotis'' by French naturalist Émile Oustalet when he described the species in 1889; that genus is now considered defunct and is no longer used. It was subsequently moved into the genus ''Cleptornis'', which had been provisionally established by Oustalet in case the species proved to be distinct.〔 Behavioural and morphological characteristics led American ornithologist Harold Douglas Pratt, Jr., to suggest in 1987 that it was related to the white-eyes. Subsequent studies have supported the idea that this species was a white-eye. It is possibly most closely related to the Micronesian white-eyes of the genus ''Rukia'', or the monotypic Bonin white-eye (''Apalopteron''), another species once placed with the honeyeaters and subsequently moved to the white-eyes.〔 The golden white-eye has a long 10th primary feather (one of the flight feathers), unlike other white-eyes where that primary is reduced or absent, which has led to the alternative suggestion that it is basal (an early offshoot) among the white-eyes.〔
Its generic name, ''Cleptornis'', is derived from the Ancient Greek ''kleptes'', a robber or thief, and ''ornis'', a bird. This is not a reference to any aspect of the golden white-eye's behaviour, but to the old French name of the Mariana Islands, ''les Îles des Voleurs'', or Robbers' Islands. The specific epithet ''marchei'' refers to the French explorer and writer Antoine-Alfred Marche, who procured the original specimens.
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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