Essays on Early Ornithology and Kindred Subjects

Part 1

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ESSAYS ON EARLY ORNITHOLOGY

200 copies printed

ESSAYS ON EARLY ORNITHOLOGY AND KINDRED SUBJECTS

By JAMES R. McCLYMONT M.A., Author of 'Pedraluarez Cabral' 'Vicente Añes Pinçon'

With Three Plates

LONDON BERNARD QUARITCH LTD. 11 GRAFTON STREET, NEW BOND STREET

1920

CONTENTS

PAGE The Rukh of Marco Polo 3 The Penguins and the Seals of the Angra de Sam Bràs 7 The Banda Islands and the Bandan Birds 15 The Etymology of the Name 'Emu' 21 Australian Birds in 1697 25 New Zealand Birds in 1772 32

LIST OF PLATES

I. CASUARIUS UNIAPPENDICULATUS, Blyth. (juv.). From an example in the British Museum of Natural History. By permission of 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 in die orientalische Indien so die holländische Schiff im Martio 1595 aussgefahren vnd im Augusto 1597 wiederkommen verzicht ... Durch Levinvm Hvlsivm. Editio Quinta. Getruckt zu Franckfurt am Mäyn durch Hartmann Palthenium in Verlegung der Hulfischen. Anno M.DC.XXV., From a copy of the book in the British Museum. By permission of the Keeper of Printed Books. p. 22

III. THE MASKED OR BLUE-FACED GANNET (Sula cyanops, S. personata). From an example in the Royal Scottish Museum. By permission of the Director. p. 35

In the Manuel d'Ornithologie (1828) Lesson writes: 'Le Fou Manche de Velours, "manga de velado" des navigateurs portugais, que l'on dit être le fou de Bassan, est de 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.

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 institutions 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, principally 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 assertions.

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, 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.

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

THE PENGUINS AND THE SEALS OF THE ANGRA DE SAM BRÀS

There 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 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 'shells'; the til over the o is absent; perhaps that is a typographical error; probably the author wrote or intended to write quõquas. These shells 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 Bràs; and as the Angra de Sam Bràs was estimated to be sixty leagues distant from the Cape of Good Hope, the sheltered anchorage must have been in proximity to the Cape.

Part 2

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--assagais 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 São Bràs, 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.

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