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Essays on early ornithology and kindred subjects By: James Roxburgh McClymont |
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200 copies printed
[Illustration: Casuarius uniappendiculatus, juv. ]
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... Continue reading book >>
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