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Title: Essays on early ornithology and kindred subjects

Author: James R McClymont

Release Date: February 4, 2008 [EBook

#24506]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS ON EARLY ORNITHOLOGY ***

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Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was

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ESSAYS ON EARLY ORNITHOLOGY

200 copies printed

Casuarius uniappendiculatus, juv.

ON

EARLY ORNITHOLOGY AND KINDRED SUBJECTS

BYJAMES R McCLYMONT

M.A., AUTHOR OF ‘PEDRALUAREZ CABRAL’

‘VICENTE AÑES PINÇON’

WITH THREE PLATES

LONDONBERNARD QUARITCH LTD.

11 GRAFTON STREET, NEW BOND STREET

1920

PAGE

The Penguins and the Seals of

The Banda Islands and the

the Director. Frontispiece

This plate should be

compared with that

opposite p 22 , which

represents a cassowary

with two wattles—

probably an immature

Casuarius galeatus,

Vieill for that is the

species which is believed to have been brought alive to Europe by the Dutch in

1597 An immature example of that species was not available for reproduction.

II Abris des wvnderbaren

Vogels Eme From

the fifth edition of

Erste Schiffart indie orientalischeIndien so dieholländische

Schiff im Martio

1595 aussgefahrenvnd im Augusto1597

moitié plus petit Ce

serait donc une race

distincte.’ tom II.

p 375 And in the

Traité d’Ornithologie

the same author

amplifies thus what he has written: ‘Fou Manche de Velours; Sula dactylatra, Less Zool de la Coq., Texte, part 2, p 494 Espèce confondue avec le fou

de Bassan adulte; est

le manga de Velado des Portugais Plumage blanc pur; ailes et queue noires; bec corné; tarses jaunes; la base du bec cerclée d’une peau nue, qui s’étend sur la gorge en forme de demi-cercle Femelle: Grise L’île de l’Ascension, les mers chaudes des Tropiques.’ Texte,

p 601.

his narrative a number of on-dit more or

less marvellous in character, which hecollected from credulous or inventivepersons with whom he came into contact,

principally from mariners and from othertravellers.

Of these addenda to his story not one ismore incredible than that of the rukh, andyet that addendum may be regarded asindicating the transition from the utterlyincredible to the admixture of truth withfiction in bird-lore For, whilst the rukhpossessed some characteristics which areutterly fabulous, others are credibleenough We are told, for example, that itresembled an eagle, that it wascarnivorous, that it possessed remarkablepowers of flight, and that it visited islandswhich lay to the south of Zanzibar, withinthe influence of an ocean current whichrendered difficult or impossible a voyagefrom these regions to India, and which

therefore must have tended in a southerlydirection In this current we have nodifficulty in recognising that ofMozambique On the other hand, that therukh had an expanse of wing of thirtypaces, and that it could lift an elephant inits talons, are of course utterly incredibleassertions.

The rukh therefore holds a position inbird-lore intermediate between that of thephœnix and that of the pelican fed uponthe blood of its mother whose beak istipped with red, or that of the barnaclegoose, of which the name suggests themollusc,1 the barnacle, and which wassaid to proceed from the mollusc or that ofthe bird of paradise, the feet of whichwere cut off by the Malay traders who

sold the skins, and which were commonlyreported never to have had feet, but tofloat perpetually in the air.

Thus two streams united into one floated

mythological stream taking its rise fromthe simourgh of the Persians and a stream

of fact taking its rise in the observation of

a real bird which visited certain islandsoff the south-east coast of Africa, andwhich is said to have resembled an eagleand may have been a sea-eagle Withcommendable reticence lexicographerstell us that ‘rukh’ was the name of a bird

of mighty wing

1 I.e., a fabulous mollusc; the barnacle is not now

regarded as a mollusc.

HERE exists an anonymous narrative

of the first voyage of Vasco da Gama

to India under the title Roteiro da Viagem

de Vasco da Gama em MCCCCXCVII

Although it is called a roteiro, it is in fact

a purely personal and popular account ofthe voyage, and does not contain eithersailing directions or a systematic

description of all the ports which werevisited, as one might expect in a roteiro.There is no reason to believe that it waswritten by Vasco da Gama An officer insuch high authority would not be likely towrite his narrative anonymously Thefaulty and variable orthography of theroteiro also renders improbable thehypothesis that Vasco da Gama was theauthor.

The journal of the first voyage ofColumbus contains many allusions to thebirds which were seen in the course of it

by the great discoverer In this respect theroteiro of the first voyage of Vasco daGama resembles it The journal ofColumbus is the earliest record of animportant voyage of discovery which

recognises natural history as an aid tonavigators, the roteiro is the next.

The author of the roteiro notes that birdsresembling large herons were seen in themonth of August, 1497, at which time, Iopine, the vessels of Da Gama were notfar from the Gulf of Guinea, or were,perhaps, making their way across that gulf

On the 27th of October, as the vesselsapproached the south-west coast of

encountered, and also ‘quoquas.’

‘Quoquas’ is the first example of theeccentric orthography of our author

‘Quoquas’ is, no doubt, his manner ofwriting ‘conchas,’ that is to say ‘shells’;

the til over the o is absent; perhaps that is

a typographical error; probably the authorwrote or intended to write quõquas Theseshells may have been those of nautili.

On the 8th of November the vessels underthe command of Vasco da Gama castanchor in a wide bay which extended fromeast to west, and which was shelteredfrom all winds excepting that which blewfrom the north-west It was subsequentlyestimated that this anchorage was sixtyleagues distant from the Angra de SamBràs; and as the Angra de Sam Bràs wasestimated to be sixty leagues distant fromthe Cape of Good Hope, the shelteredanchorage must have been in proximity tothe Cape

The voyagers named it the Angra de Santa

Elena, and it may have been the bay which

is now known as St Helen’s Bay But it isworthy of note that the G de Sta Ellena ofthe Cantino Chart is laid down in aposition which corresponds rather withthat of Table Bay than with that of St.Helen’s Bay

The Portuguese came into contact with theinhabitants of the country adjacent to theanchorage These people had tawnycomplexions, and carried wooden spearstipped with horn—assagais of a kind—and bows and arrows They also usedfoxes’ tails attached to short woodenhandles We are not informed for whatpurposes the foxes’ tails were used Werethey used to brush flies away, or werethey insignia of authority? The food of the

natives was the flesh of whales, seals, andantelopes (gazellas), and the roots ofcertain plants Crayfish or ‘Cape lobsters’abounded near the anchorage.

The author of the roteiro affirms that thebirds of the country resembled the birds inPortugal, and that amongst them werecormorants, larks, turtle-doves, and gulls.The gulls are called ‘guayvotas,’ but

‘guayvotas’ is probably another instance

of the eccentric orthography of the authorand equivalent to ‘gaivotas.’

In December the squadron reached theAngra de São Bràs, which was eitherMossel Bay or another bay in closeproximity to Mossel Bay Here penguinsand seals were in great abundance The

author of the roteiro calls the penguins

‘sotelycairos,’ which is more correctlywritten ‘sotilicarios’ by subsequentwriters The word is probably related to

the Spanish sotil and the Latin subtilis,

and may contain an allusion to thesupposed cunning of the penguins, whichdisappear by diving when an enemyapproaches

The sotilicarios, says the chronicler,could not fly because there were no quill-feathers in their wings; in size they were

as large as drakes, and their cryresembled the braying of an ass.Castanheda, Goes, and Osorio alsomention the sotilicario in their accounts ofthe first voyage of Vasco da Gama, andcompare its flipper to the wing of a bat—a

not wholly inept comparison, for theunder-surface of the wings of penguins iswholly devoid of feathery covering.Manuel de Mesquita Perestrello, whovisited the south coast of Africa in 1575,also describes the Cape penguin From amanuscript of his Roteiro in the OportoLibrary, one learns that the flippers of thesotilicario were covered with minutefeathers, as indeed they are on the uppersurface and that they dived after fish, uponwhich they fed, and on which they fedtheir young, which were hatched in nests constructed of fishbones.1 There is nothing

to cavil at in these statements, unless it bethat which asserts that the nests wereconstructed of fishbones, for this is not inaccordance with the observations ofcontemporary naturalists, who tell us that

the nests of the Cape Penguin (Spheniscus

demersus) are constructed of stones,

shells, and débris.2 It is, therefore,probable that the fishbones whichPerestrello saw were the remains ofrepasts of seals

Seals, says the roteiro, were in greatnumber at the Angra de São Bràs On oneoccasion the number was counted and wasfound to be three thousand Some were aslarge as bears and their roaring was as theroaring of lions Others, which were verysmall, bleated like kids These differences

in size and in voice may be explained bydifferences in the age and in the sex of theseals, for seals of different species do notusually resort to the same locality Theseal which formerly frequented the south

coast of Africa—for it is, I believe, nolonger a denizen of that region—was thatwhich is known to naturalists as

Arctocephalus delalandii, and, as adult

males sometimes attain eight and a halffeet in length, it may well be described as

of the size of a bear Cubs from six toeight months of age measure about twofeet and a half in length.3 The Portuguesecaught anchovies in the bay, which theysalted to serve as provisions on thevoyage They anchored a second time inthe Angra de São Bràs in March, 1499, ontheir homeward voyage

Yet one more allusion to the penguins andseals of the Angra de São Bràs is ofsufficient historical interest to bementioned The first Dutch expedition to

Bantam weighed anchor on the 2nd ofApril, 1595, and on the 4th of August ofthe same year the vessels anchored in aharbour called ‘Ague Sambras,’ in eight

or nine fathoms of water, on a sandybottom So many of the sailors were sickwith scurvy—‘thirty or thirty-three,’ saysthe narrator, ‘in one ship’—that it wasnecessary to find fresh fruit for them ‘Inthis bay,’ runs the English translation ofthe narrative, ‘lieth a small Island whereinare many birds called Pyncuins and seaWolves, that are taken with men’s hands.’

In the original Dutch narrative by WillemLodewyckszoon, published in Amsterdam

in 1597, the name of the birds appears as

‘Pinguijns.’

1 Roteiro da Viagem de Vasco da Gama 2da edição.

Lisboa, 1861 Pp 14 and 105.

2 Moseley, Notes by a Naturalist on the ‘Challenger,’

p 155.

3 Catalogue of Seals and Whales in the British

Museum, by J E Gray 2nd ed., p 53.

and consist of four central islands in closeproximity to one another, inclosing a littleinland sea, and four outlying islets Thecentral islands are Lonthoir, or GreatBanda, Banda Neira, Gounong Api, which

is an active volcano, and Pisang Theremaining Banda Islands are Rozengain,which lies about ten miles distant to thesouth-east of Great Banda; Wai, at anequal distance to the west; Rhun, abouteight miles west by south from Wai; andSuangi or Manukan, about seventeen milesnorth by east from Rhun

The Banda Islands are well known as theprincipal centre of the cultivation of thenutmeg When the Dutch East IndiaCompany became the possessors of theislands in the beginning of the seventeenth

century, they destroyed the nutmeg trees inall the islands under their jurisdiction,with the exception of those in Amboynaand the Banda Islands By doing so theyhoped to maintain the high value of thesenatural products.

The Banda Islands may have been visited

by Varthema, but our first reliable account

of them connects the discovery of themwith an expedition dispatched by order ofAlfonso de Albuquerque from Malacca.Shortly after Albuquerque had defeatedthe Malays and taken possession of thatcity, he sent three vessels, under thecommand of Antonio de Abreu, to explorethe Archipelago and to inaugurate a tradewith the islanders A junk, commanded by

a native merchant captain, Ismael by

name, preceded the other vessels for thepurpose of announcing their approachingadvent to the traders of the Archipelago,

so that they might have their spices readyfor shipment With De Abreu wentFrancisco Serrão and Simão Affonso, incommand of two of the vessels The pilotswere Luis Botim, Gonçalo de Oliveira,and Francisco Rodriguez or Roiz Abreuleft Malacca in November, 1511, at whichseason the westerly monsoon begins toblow He steered a south-easterly course,passed through the Strait of Sabong, andhaving arrived at the coast of Java, he castanchor at Agaçai, which Valentijnidentifies with Gresik, near Sourabaya AtAgaçai, Javan pilots were engaged for thevoyage thence to the Banda Islands Bandawas, however, not the first port of call

The course was first to Buru, and thence

to Amboyna Galvão relates that Abreulanded at Guli Guli, which is in Ceram.Barros, however, in his account of thevoyage, makes no mention of Ceram At

Francisco Serrão, an Indian vessel whichhad been captured at Goa, was burnt, for,says Barros, ‘she was old,’ and the ship’scompany was divided between the twoother ships, which then proceeded toLutatão, which is perhaps identical withOrtattan, a trading station on the northcoast of Great Banda Here Abreuobtained a cargo of nutmegs and mace and

of cloves, which had been brought hitherfrom the Moluccas At Lutatão Abreuerected a pillar in token of annexation tothe dominions of the King of Portugal He

had done this at Agaçai and in Amboynaalso.

The return voyage to Malacca was marked

by disaster A junk, which now wasbought to replace the Indian vessel, waswrecked, and the crew, who had takenrefuge on a small island, was attacked bypirates The pirates, however, wereworsted and their craft was captured.Serrão, who had been in command of thejunk, sailed in the pirate vessel toAmboyna, and thence eventually reachedTernate, where he remained at theinvitation of Boleife, the Sultan of thatisland The junk, of which Ismael was theskipper, was also wrecked near Tuban,but the cargo, consisting of cloves, wasrecovered in 1513 from the Javans, who

had taken possession of it.

Zoologically the Banda Islands lie withinWallace’s Australian Region, and theiravifauna has a great affinity with that ofAustralia Wallace visited these islands inDecember 1857, May 1859, and April

1861, and collected eight species of birds,

namely, Rhipidura squamata, a fan-tailed Flycatcher; Pachycephala phæonota, a thi ckhead; Myzomela boiei, a small

scarlet-headed honey-eater; Zosterops

chloris, a white-eye; Pitta vigorsi, one of

the brightly-coloured ground thrushes of

the Malayan region; Halcyon chloris, a

kingfisher with a somewhat extensive

r a nge ; Ptilopus xanthogaster, a

fruit-eating pigeon, and the nutmeg pigeon,

Carpophaga concinna The islands were

visited by the members of the Challenger

expedition in September and October,

1874, but the only additional species thenobtained was Monarcha cinerascens,

also a Flycatcher

These birds may be regarded as theresident birds of the Banda Islands, butthere are others which are occasionalvisitants or migrants Indeed, in seas sofull of islands, it is inevitable thatwanderers from other islands shouldoccasionally visit the group

To those which I have already mentionedthere may therefore be added, as of less

frequency, the accipitrine bird, Astur

polionotus, the Hoary-backed Goshawk;

the Passeres Edoliisoma dispar, a

Caterpillar Shrike, the skin of a male ofwhich from Great Banda is in the Leyden

Museum, and Motacilla melanope, the

Grey Wagtail Of picarian birds there

have been found Cuculus intermedius, the

cyanocephala sub-species everetti, a small form of the Koel, and Eurystomus

australis, the Australian Roller João de

Barros, in his Asia, mentions the parrots

of the Banda Islands,1 and we findaccordingly that one of the Psittaci isrecorded from Banda in modern times,

namely, Eos rubra, a red, or rather a

crimson lory The ornithologist Müllersaw many of these birds in Great Banda,

on the Kanary trees Additional pigeons

chrysochlora and the fruit-eating

Ptilonopus wallacei, and finally there is

one gallinaceous bird which is probablyresident, but the shy and retiring habits ofwhich have enabled it to escapeobservation until recently This is a Scrub

Fowl (Megapodius duperreyi).

1 III v 6 ‘Muitos papagayos & passaros diversos.’