PIONEER NATURALISTS.
NEWS of the death of Mr. John Whitehead, the eminent field-naturalist and collector, comes from the island of Hainan, off the Southern Coast of China. He had gone to the Far East with the intention of completing the exploration of the fauna of the Philippine Islands, but as the insurrection was still in its acute stage, he made his way to Hainan. There he and all his collectors fell sick of the deadly fevers rife in the island. "I fear," he wrote in his last letter, "that I shall have to flee from this terrible and most unhealthy spot;" but it was too late for flight. The Chinese soldier who brought the letter to the coast was the only one of the entire party who escaped the sickness, and the leader died on Jane 2nd.
Mr. Whitehead was a representative of a class to which scientific natural history owes a debt, and whose life and adventures are often among the most attractive of all records of exploration. The business of the naturalist-collector is to acquire and bring back to the museums of Europe new or rare instances of animal life. The range of his activity is only bounded by the extent of his knowledge, unless, as in the case of Mr. Whitehead, he prefers to limit his efforts to some special branch of inquiry.
Mr. Wallace's first expeditions to the Far East were made with the object of collecting, and the history of his travels embodied in "The Malay Archipelago," like the late C. Bate's "Naturalist on the Amazons," was only a brilliant summary of years of patient labour, during which tens of thousands of specimens were collected for the use of the museums of England. The risks run in this pursuit are far greater than those of ordinary travellers for travel's sake, or by sportsmen when in search of big game. The very nature of their quest leads them into regions unexplored and uninhabited on account of their remoteness or the dangers of the climate. Mr. Seebohm's discoveries among the birds of the tundra are among the few instances of modern additions to this branch of knowledge made without risk to life. Most of the regions in which the naturalist-collector now spends his time are in the area of the tropical forest, whether on continents or islands in either hemisphere; and in these lands of mystery and twilight, of high temperature and torrential rains, the natives themselves can scarcely endure the trials of the climate. Yet the collector cannot make flying visits. When he goes to a new district, he goes to stay. He must form a camp and a permanent headquarters; must there prepare, pack, and despatch his specimens ; write his notes on their appearance when first obtained, for the guidance of those at home ; and label, index, and describe them, so that the scientific naturalist at home may find each item complete in itself. Examples of the care and ingenuity of the collectors are so common that they excite little surprise amongst those who receive the work at home. Those less conversant with the accurate methods of the modern naturalist will not be slow to appreciate his power of taking pains. Recently, for example, an expedition was made up the Congo, under the authority of the Congo Free State, to explore and collect the fishes of that river. A very large number were taken, of strange shapes and strange colours, each being consigned as soon as possible to glass cases filled with spirits of wine, which were then sealed. Unfortunately the spirit, which preserves the form of the fish, does not preserve their true colours. This needed the supplement of a painted picture done upon the spot. In the tropics decay sets in so rapidly that there is always a risk that some rare, perhaps irreplaceable, speci- men might be injured if kept out of the spirit long enough to have its portrait painted. Consequently the collector of these fish did a "colour-note" of the more striking parts of each, grouping many of these notes on the same sheet of paper, and as the eyes of many are not round, but irregular in shape, the eye of every fish and frog was painted accurately beside the rough sketch or colour-note, of its proper shape and tint.
Unlike the author of "The Malay Archipelago," whose discoveries ranged from the capture of the "largest, the most perfect, and the most beautiful of all butterflies" to the anthropoid apes, Mr. Whitehead confined himself to the study of birds. In the woods his genius for outdoor observation was equalled by his skill in managing the natives whom he employed. His eye was so keen that no new species ever seemed to escape it, and his patience such that he could " outwait" even the sulky children of the woods. If they sat down and refused to move, he sat down by their side and waited till they changed their minds. In the Philippines he worked for months in forests under perpetual rain, at a height of 5,000 ft. Yet the specimens he brought home were as perfectly preserved as if he had been at work in the rooms of the British Museum. Not the least of the trials of the pioneer naturalist is that he is, as a rule, alone. The collector's life outside the beaten track of travel is one long series of experiments and minor adventures. Each day's work, each new expedition from the temporary camp, comes from the initiative of the man himself, as inclination or reflection
suggests. Two are too many for such conditions. You cannot defer to a friend as to whether you shall go to the top of a mountain or only half-way up. Mr. Whitehead always made his expeditions alone, from the first humble beginning, wen in Corsica he discovered a new nuthatch and added it to the list of European birds, to the final journey to Hainan. He visited Borneo, climbed the great mountain of Kina Balu, and brought back forty-one new species of birds from that region. He also explored the birds of the island of Palawan, where he found more new species. But his most interesting work was in the Upper Philippines. In this expedition he made the most striking ornithological discovery of recent times,—the great forest eagle of Samar. The only skin of an adult bird of this species is that sent home by him, which is now among the treasures of the British Museum of Natural History. It is far too precious for exhibition, but its portraits and dimensions are given in the Ibis in a paper by Mr. Ogilvie Grant. Its combined weapons of beak and claw are more formidable than those of every other bird, and its weight about one-half greater than that of the golden eagle. Like all forest birds, it has short wings, but the length of the body is no less remarkable than its weight. Some of the most interesting of the smaller Philippine birds collected by Mr. Whitehead are shown, together with their nests, in the cases in the bird gallery at the Museum, among them being a series of sun-birds, diminutive creatures with the colours of humming-birds, but of more prosaic shape. That called after its discoverer has a black head, with purple iridescence, a black back, and a crimson belly ; others are scarlet, purple, black, and yellow.
But the nests of these little birds, which Mr. Whitehead obtained and sent over to this country in perfect condition, together with the leaves to which they were attached, are more interesting than the birds themselves. Many of them are of shapes and materials quite unlike any seen elsewhere, and absolutely different from any of the "stock designs" of nests made by European birds. Some of the " flower- peckers' " nests are shaped like a flat purse or alms bag. The entrance to this is not on either side, but in the end, in which is a slit through which the little bird creeps into the flat-sided bag. This is suspended from a branch, or from the inside of a large drooping tropical leaf, which completely hides the nest from in front. The most beautiful is that of the blood-breasted flower-pecker, which, like others, hangs from a large fleshy leaf. It looks as if made up from small square fragments of dead rose petals (though this is not the real material), the colour being that of "old rose." How the material is fastened together is not obvious, but apparently by weaving over it single threads of spider's silk. The inducement to undertake these expeditions is usually pure love of discovery and, in a minor degree, the taste for "collecting." The time must be approaching when there will be no more unknown birds or beasts to discover. Then the explorer will perforce fall back on the less exciting search for new insects, or new plants and flowers. The botanists and florists have still a field before them, and a new orchid is a valuable discovery, and a new dye or fibre plant potential wealth. If the green indigo, reputed to exist in some country in the Far East, were found, its discoverer's fortune would be made; and a real rival to indiarubber, or a substitute for Manila hemp, would enrich a whole community.
Previous page
