506 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vou 56. 



niscus Jiumboldtii Meyen, found from Lobos de Afuera southward, 

 is not now sufficiently abundant to count, economically speaking. 

 Other birds, such as the gulls, and terns, are very numerous, but for 

 various reasons they are of quite secondary economic significance. 



It will be of interest now to compare the accounts of previous ob- 

 servors. Unfortunately few of the naturalists who have made col- 

 lections and observations on the Peruvian coast actually made visits 

 to the guano islands and left records of their observations.* If we go 

 back to Humboldt, we find his statement (as quoted by Raimondi 

 and others) that the Chincha Islands were occupied by a multitude of 

 birds, especially "ardeas" and " f enicopteros " (herons and flamin- 

 goes), a statement which it would indeed be difficult to credit. 

 Since he also states that these birds have not in the couree of three 

 centm'ies, been able to produce more than a thickness of 4 or 5 lines 

 of guano (whereas in fact many times this thickness is deposited in 

 one year), we must believe, either that Humboldt -viTote from in- 

 formation received at second-hand, or else, as Raimondi suggests, 

 that the presence of the birds mentioned was a chance observation. 

 In any event we must neglect this account. 



* The earliest published reference to the guano birds is found in Gareillasso de la Vesa, who made no 

 mention of the varieties of birds contributin? to the f;uano deposits. His record is however, of great interest 

 and importance, not only for its historical value, but because of its definite recognition of the significance 

 of contemporary birds as agents in guano production. This native historian possessed, of course, a more 

 axurate knowledge of conditions and a more intimate ciperience with things concerning Peru than Tlum- 

 boldt, who, thougli he must be credited with the principal part in directing the attention of the world to the 

 possibilities of the guano deposits, yet seems to have been responsible not only for manifestly incorrect 

 gtatements regarding the birds, but for establishmg for the time being, the erroneous and unfortunate 

 impression that the deposits were of a merely fossil nature and unreplcnishable. Had Humboldt given 

 correct information it might earlier have been recognized that it was commcr iaily useful to protect the 

 birds as was done in the time before the conquest. Gar?ilIasso de la Vega's record is of sufficient interest and 

 relevance to be given, as quoted and translated from Raimondi: 



" By the se-acoast from below Arequipa as far as Tarapara, which is above 200 leagues, they use no other 

 manure but such as is derived from the marine birds, which live along the entire coast of Peru, large and 

 small, and which go in flo?ks of a si e that is incredible if they are not seen. They breed upon the unm- 

 habited islands which occur along that coast; and so much is the excrement which they leave upon them 

 that this likewise is incredible. The mounds of manure appear from a distance as snowy mountains. In 

 thetimcofthelncakingssuchvigilanceinguardinffthe birds was maintained that, at the time of breeding 

 it was forbidden to anyone to enter on those islands, under penalty of death, in order thatthey might not 

 disturb nor dnve them from their nests. Neither was it permitted to kill them at any time within or with- 

 out the islands, under like penalty." (Antonio Raimondi: El Peru. Vol. 4, p. 489. See also: The Royal 

 Commentaries of Peru in two parts: written originally in Spanish by the Inca Garrilasso de la Vega and 

 rendered into English by Sir Paul Rycaut, Kt., London, 1688. Part 1, Book 5, Chapter 3, p. 135). 



It is remarkable that the rulers of Peru in the days before the conquest should not only have realized 

 that the birds must receive protection, but that they should have seen the necessity of adopting for this 

 purpose, such an economic system in the exploitation of deposits as has in recent years been recommended 

 to the Government of Peru. (See the writer's article in Science, cited on p. 449 above.) For the Inca goes 

 on to say: 



" Every island was by order of the Inca as.=!i=rned to such and such provinces, and if the island were very 

 large, then two or three of them divided the soilage, the which they laid up in separate heaps, that so one 

 province might not encroach on the proportion allotted to the other; and when they came to make their 

 division to particular persons and neighbors, they then weighed and shared out to every man the quantity 

 he was to receive; and it was felony for any man to take more than what belonged to him, or to rob or steal 

 it from the ground of his neighbor, for m regard that every man had as much as was necessary for his own 

 lands, the takmg a greater quantity than what belonged to him, was judged a crime, and a high offence; 

 for that this sort of birds dung was esteemed precious, being the best improvement and manure for land in 

 the world. Howsoever, in other parts of that coast, and in the low countries of Atica, Atiquipa, Villacori, 

 Malla, and Chillca, and other Valleys, they dung their groimds with the heads of a small fish, like our 

 pilchards, and with no other soilage." (Royal Commentaries, p. 136.) 



