Essays on early ornithology and kindred subjects Part 1

Essays on early ornithology and kindred subjects.

by James R. McClymont.

THE RUKH OF MARCO POLO

Marco Polo, had he confined himself to a sober narration of his travels, would have left to posterity a valuable record of the political inst.i.tutions and national customs of the peoples of his day in the Far East. He was not satisfied with doing this, but added to his narrative a number of _on-dit_ more or less marvellous in character, which he collected from credulous or inventive persons with whom he came into contact, princ.i.p.ally from mariners and from other travellers.

Of these addenda to his story not one is more incredible than that of the rukh, and yet that addendum may be regarded as indicating the transition from the utterly incredible to the admixture of truth with fiction in bird-lore. For, whilst the rukh possessed some characteristics which are utterly fabulous, others are credible enough.

We are told, for example, that it resembled an eagle, that it was carnivorous, that it possessed remarkable powers of flight, and that it visited islands which lay to the south of Zanzibar, within the influence of an ocean current which rendered difficult or impossible a voyage from these regions to India, and which therefore must have tended in a southerly direction. In this current we have no difficulty in recognising that of Mozambique. On the other hand, that the rukh had an expanse of wing of thirty paces, and that it could lift an elephant in its talons, are of course utterly incredible a.s.sertions.

The rukh therefore holds a position in bird-lore intermediate between that of the phoenix and that of the pelican fed upon the blood of its mother whose beak is tipped with red, or that of the barnacle goose, of which the name suggests the mollusc,[1] the barnacle, and which was said to proceed from the mollusc or that of the bird of paradise, the feet of which were cut off by the Malay traders who sold the skins, and which were commonly reported never to have had feet, but to float perpetually in the air.

Thus two streams united into one floated the conception of the rukh--a mythological stream taking its rise from the simourgh of the Persians and a stream of fact taking its rise in the observation of a real bird which visited certain islands off the south-east coast of Africa, and which is said to have resembled an eagle and may have been a sea-eagle.

With commendable reticence lexicographers tell 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.

THE PENGUINS AND THE SEALS OF THE ANGRA DE SAM BRaS

There exists an anonymous narrative of the first voyage of Vasco da Gama to India under the t.i.tle _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 of the voyage, and does not contain either sailing directions or a systematic description of all the ports which were visited, as one might expect in a roteiro. There is no reason to believe that it was written by Vasco da Gama. An officer in such high authority would not be likely to write his narrative anonymously. The faulty and variable orthography of the roteiro also renders improbable the hypothesis that Vasco da Gama was the author.

The journal of the first voyage of Columbus contains many allusions to the birds which were seen in the course of it by the great discoverer.

In this respect the roteiro of the first voyage of Vasco da Gama resembles it. The journal of Columbus is the earliest record of an important voyage of discovery which recognises natural history as an aid to navigators, the roteiro is the next.

The author of the roteiro notes that birds resembling large herons were seen in the month of August, 1497, at which time, I opine, the vessels of Da Gama were not far from the Gulf of Guinea, or were, perhaps, making their way across that gulf. On the 27th of October, as the vessels approached the south-west coast of Africa, whales and seals were encountered, and also 'quoquas.'

'Quoquas' is the first example of the eccentric orthography of our author. 'Quoquas' is, no doubt, his manner of writing 'conchas,' that is to say 'sh.e.l.ls'; the _til_ over the o is absent; perhaps that is a typographical error; probably the author wrote or intended to write ququas. These sh.e.l.ls may have been those of nautili.

On the 8th of November the vessels under the command of Vasco da Gama cast anchor in a wide bay which extended from east to west, and which was sheltered from all winds excepting that which blew from the north-west. It was subsequently estimated that this anchorage was sixty leagues distant from the Angra de Sam Bras; and as the Angra de Sam Bras was estimated to be sixty leagues distant from the Cape of Good Hope, the sheltered anchorage must have been in proximity to the 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 is worthy of note that the G. de Sta. Ellena of the Cantino Chart is laid down in a position which corresponds rather with that of Table Bay than with that of St.

Helen's Bay.

The Portuguese came into contact with the inhabitants of the country adjacent to the anchorage. These people had tawny complexions, and carried wooden spears tipped with horn--a.s.sagais of a kind--and bows and arrows. They also used foxes' tails attached to short wooden handles. We are not informed for what purposes the foxes' tails were used. Were they used to brush flies away, or were they insignia of authority? The food of the natives was the flesh of whales, seals, and antelopes (gazellas), and the roots of certain plants. Crayfish or 'Cape lobsters'

abounded near the anchorage.

The author of the roteiro affirms that the birds of the country resembled the birds in Portugal, and that amongst them were cormorants, larks, turtle-doves, and gulls. The gulls are called 'guayvotas,' but 'guayvotas' is probably another instance of the eccentric orthography of the author and equivalent to 'gaivotas.'

In December the squadron reached the Angra de So Bras, which was either Mossel Bay or another bay in close proximity to Mossel Bay. Here penguins and seals were in great abundance. The author of the roteiro calls the penguins 'sotelycairos,' which is more correctly written 'sotilicarios' by subsequent writers. The word is probably related to the Spanish _sotil_ and the Latin _subtilis_, and may contain an allusion to the supposed cunning of the penguins, which disappear by diving when an enemy approaches.

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 cry resembled the braying of an a.s.s. Castanheda, Goes, and Osorio also mention the sotilicario in their accounts of the first voyage of Vasco da Gama, and compare its flipper to the wing of a bat--a not wholly inept comparison, for the under-surface of the wings of penguins is wholly devoid of feathery covering. Manuel de Mesquita Perestrello, who visited the south coast of Africa in 1575, also describes the Cape penguin. From a ma.n.u.script of his Roteiro in the Oporto Library, one learns that the flippers of the sotilicario were covered with minute feathers, as indeed they are on the upper surface and that they dived after fish, upon which they fed, and on which they fed their young, which were hatched in nests constructed of fishbones.[2] There is nothing to cavil at in these statements, unless it be that which a.s.serts that the nests were constructed of fishbones, for this is not in accordance with the observations of contemporary naturalists, who tell us that the nests of the Cape Penguin (_Spheniscus demersus_) are constructed of stones, sh.e.l.ls, and debris.[3] It is, therefore, probable that the fishbones which Perestrello saw were the remains of repasts of seals.

Seals, says the roteiro, were in great number at the Angra de So Bras.

On one occasion the number was counted and was found to be three thousand. Some were as large as bears and their roaring was as the roaring of lions. Others, which were very small, bleated like kids.

These differences in size and in voice may be explained by differences in the age and in the s.e.x of the seals, for seals of different species do not usually resort to the same locality. The seal which formerly frequented the south coast of Africa--for it is, I believe, no longer a denizen of that region--was that which is known to naturalists as _Arctocephalus delalandii_, and, as adult males sometimes attain eight and a half feet in length, it may well be described as of the size of a bear. Cubs from six to eight months of age measure about two feet and a half in length.[4] The Portuguese caught anchovies in the bay, which they salted to serve as provisions on the voyage. They anch.o.r.ed a second time in the Angra de So Bras in March, 1499, on their homeward voyage.

Yet one more allusion to the penguins and seals of the Angra de So Bras is of sufficient historical interest to be mentioned. The first Dutch expedition to Bantam weighed anchor on the 2nd of April, 1595, and on the 4th of August of the same year the vessels anch.o.r.ed in a harbour called 'Ague Sambras,' in eight or nine fathoms of water, on a sandy bottom. So many of the sailors were sick with scurvy--'thirty or thirty-three,' says the narrator, 'in one s.h.i.+p'--that it was necessary to find fresh fruit for them. 'In this bay,' runs the English translation of the narrative, 'lieth a small Island wherein are many birds called Pyncuins and sea Wolves, that are taken with men's hands.'

In the original Dutch narrative by Willem Lodewyckszoon, published in Amsterdam in 1597, the name of the birds appears as 'Pinguijns.'

[2] _Roteiro da Viagem de Vasco da Gama_. 2da edico. Lisboa, 1861.

Pp. 14 and 105.

[3] Moseley, _Notes by a Naturalist on the 'Challenger,'_ p. 155.

[4] _Catalogue of Seals and Whales in the British Museum_, by J. E.

Gray. 2nd ed., p. 53.

THE BANDA ISLANDS AND THE BANDAN BIRDS

The islands of the Banda Sea, with the exception of Letti, Kisser, and Wetter, const.i.tute the Ceram sub-group or the Moluccan group; the princ.i.p.al units are Buru, Amboyna, Great Banda, Ceram, Ceram Laut, Goram, Kur, Babar, and Dama. The Matabela Islands, the Tiandu Islands, the Ke Islands, and the Tenimber Islands also belong to the Ceram sub-group. We are only concerned with the Banda Islands, which are eight in number, and consist of four central islands in close proximity to one another, inclosing a little inland sea, and four outlying islets. The central islands are Lonthoir, or Great Banda, Banda Neira, Gounong Api, which is an active volcano, and Pisang. The remaining Banda Islands are Rozengain, which lies about ten miles distant to the south-east of Great Banda; Wai, at an equal distance to the west; Rhun, about eight miles west by south from Wai; and Suangi or Manukan, about seventeen miles north by east from Rhun.

The Banda Islands are well known as the princ.i.p.al centre of the cultivation of the nutmeg. When the Dutch East India Company became the possessors of the islands in the beginning of the seventeenth century, they destroyed the nutmeg trees in all the islands under their jurisdiction, with the exception of those in Amboyna and the Banda Islands. By doing so they hoped to maintain the high value of these natural products.

The Banda Islands may have been visited by Varthema, but our first reliable account of them connects the discovery of them with an expedition dispatched by order of Alfonso de Albuquerque from Malacca.

Shortly after Albuquerque had defeated the Malays and taken possession of that city, he sent three vessels, under the command of Antonio de Abreu, to explore the Archipelago and to inaugurate a trade with the islanders. A junk, commanded by a native merchant captain, Ismael by name, preceded the other vessels for the purpose of announcing their approaching advent to the traders of the Archipelago, so that they might have their spices ready for s.h.i.+pment. With De Abreu went Francisco Serro and Simo Affonso, in command of two of the vessels. The pilots were Luis Botim, Goncalo de Oliveira, and Francisco Rodriguez or Roiz.

Abreu left Malacca in November, 1511, at which season the westerly monsoon begins to blow. He steered a south-easterly course, pa.s.sed through the Strait of Sabong, and having arrived at the coast of Java, he cast anchor at Agacai, which Valentijn identifies with Gresik, near Sourabaya. At Agacai, Javan pilots were engaged for the voyage thence to the Banda Islands. Banda was, however, not the first port of call. The course was first to Buru, and thence to Amboyna. Galvo relates that Abreu landed at Guli Guli, which is in Ceram. Barros, however, in his account of the voyage, makes no mention of Ceram. At Amboyna the s.h.i.+p commanded by Francisco Serro, an Indian vessel which had been captured at Goa, was burnt, for, says Barros, 'she was old,' and the s.h.i.+p's company was divided between the two other s.h.i.+ps, which then proceeded to Lutato, which is perhaps identical with Ortattan, a trading station on the north coast of Great Banda. Here Abreu obtained a cargo of nutmegs and mace and of cloves, which had been brought hither from the Moluccas.

At Lutato Abreu erected a pillar in token of annexation to the dominions of the King of Portugal. He had done this at Agacai and in Amboyna also.

The return voyage to Malacca was marked by disaster. A junk, which now was bought to replace the Indian vessel, was wrecked, and the crew, who had taken refuge on a small island, was attacked by pirates. The pirates, however, were worsted and their craft was captured. Serro, who had been in command of the junk, sailed in the pirate vessel to Amboyna, and thence eventually reached Ternate, where he remained at the invitation of Boleife, the Sultan of that island. The junk, of which Ismael was the skipper, was also wrecked near Tuban, but the cargo, consisting of cloves, was recovered in 1513 from the Javans, who had taken possession of it.

Zoologically the Banda Islands lie within Wallace's Australian Region, and their avifauna has a great affinity with that of Australia. Wallace visited these islands in December 1857, May 1859, and April 1861, and collected eight species of birds, namely, _Rhipidura squamata_, a fan-tailed Flycatcher; _Pachycephala phaeonota_, a thickhead; _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 range; _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 then obtained was _Monarcha cinerascens_, also a Flycatcher.

These birds may be regarded as the resident birds of the Banda Islands, but there are others which are occasional visitants or migrants. Indeed, in seas so full of islands, it is inevitable that wanderers from other islands should occasionally visit the group.

To those which I have already mentioned there may therefore be added, as of less frequency, the accipitrine bird, _Astur polionotus_, the h.o.a.ry-backed Goshawk; the Pa.s.seres _Edoliisoma dispar_, a Caterpillar Shrike, the skin of a male of which from Great Banda is in the Leyden Museum, and _Motacilla melanope_, the Grey Wagtail. Of picarian birds there have been found _Cuculus intermedius_, the Oriental Cuckoo; _Eudynamis cyanocephala_ sub-species _everetti_, a small form of the Koel, and _Eurystomus australis_, the Australian Roller. Joo de Barros, in his _Asia_, mentions the parrots of the Banda Islands,[5] and we find accordingly that one of the Psittaci is recorded from Banda in modern times, namely, _Eos rubra_, a red, or rather a crimson lory. The ornithologist Muller saw many of these birds in Great Banda, on the Kanary trees. Additional pigeons are the seed-eating _Chalcophaps chrysochlora_ and the fruit-eating _Ptilonopus wallacei_, and finally there is one gallinaceous bird which is probably resident, but the shy and retiring habits of which have enabled it to escape observation until recently. This is a Scrub Fowl (_Megapodius duperreyi_).

[5] III. v. 6. 'Muitos papagayos & pa.s.saros diversos.'

THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE NAME 'EMU'

The name 'emu' has an interesting history. It occurs in the forms 'emia'

and 'eme' in _Purchas his Pilgrimage_, in 1613. 'In Banda and other islands,' says Purchas, 'the bird called emia or eme is admirable.' We should probably p.r.o.nounce 'eme' in two syllables, as e-me. This eme or emia was doubtless a ca.s.sowary--probably that of Ceram. The idea that it was a native of the Banda Group appears to have existed in some quarters at the beginning of the seventeenth century, but the idea was a.s.suredly an erroneous one. So large a struthious bird as the ca.s.sowary requires more extensive feeding-grounds and greater seclusion than was to be found in any island of the Banda Group, and, as at the present day so in the past, Ceram was the true home of the Malayan ca.s.sowary, which found and which finds in the extensive forests of that island the home adapted to its requirements. It is, however, equally certain that at an early date the Ceram ca.s.sowary was imported into Amboyna and probably into Banda also, and we know of an early instance of its being introduced into Java, and from Java into Europe. When the first Dutch expedition to Java had reached that island, and when the vessels of which it was composed were lying at anchor off Sindaya, some Javans brought a ca.s.sowary on board Sch.e.l.lenger's s.h.i.+p as a gift, saying that the bird was a rare one and that it swallowed fire. At least, so they were understood to say, but that they really did say so is somewhat doubtful.

However, the sailors put the matter to the test by administering to the bird a dose of hollands; perhaps the hollands was ignited and administered in the form of liquid fire, but it is not expressly stated that this was the case. This ca.s.sowary was brought alive to Amsterdam in 1597, and was presented to the Estates of Holland at the Hague.[6] A figure of it, under the name 'eme,' appears in the fourth and fifth German editions of the account of this voyage of the Dutch to Java, by Hulsius, published at Frankfort in 1606 and 1625. The figure is a fairly accurate representation of an immature ca.s.sowary.