THE OSPREY. 



31 



Europe new or rare instances of animal life. 

 The ranj^e of his activity is only bounded by the 

 extent of his kno\Yledj;e, unless, as in the case 

 of Mr. Whitehead, he prefers to limit his efforts 

 to soine s])ecial branch of inquiry". 



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 

 scarceU" endure the trials of the climate. Yet 

 the collector cannot make flying- visits. When 

 he g'oes to a new district, he goes to staA'. He 

 must form a camp and a permanent headquar- 

 ters; must there prepare, pack, and dispatch his 

 specimens; write his notes on their appearance 

 when tirst obtained, for the guidance of those 

 at home; and label, index, and describe them, so 

 that the scientific naturalist at home maj' find 

 each item complete in itself. Examples of the 

 care and ingenuity of the collectors are so com- 

 mon 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. ■■•■ - - 



We take the liberty- of further drawing upon 

 the Spectator for a notice of Whitehead's work 

 in the Philippine Islands. 



"Unlike the author of 'The Malay Archi- 

 pelag-o,' " whose discoveries range from the 

 capture of the "larg-est, the most perfect, and 

 the most beautiful of all butterflies" to the an- 

 thropoid apes, Mr. Whitehead confined himself 

 to the study of birds. In the woods his genius 

 for outdoor observation was equalled b3' his skill 

 in manag'ing- 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 sulk3' 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 in- 

 clination or reflection stiggests. Two are too 

 many for such conditions. You cannot defer to 

 a friend as to whether 3'ou shall g^o to the top of 

 a mountain or only halfway up. Mr. Whitehead 

 always made his expeditions alone, from the 

 flrst humble beg'inning-, when in Corsica he dis- 

 covered a new nuthatch and added it to the list 

 of European birds, to the final journey to Hai- 

 nan. He visited Borneo, climbed the great moun- 

 tain of Kina Balu, and brought back fort3'-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 orni- 

 thological discoverj- of recent times,— the great 

 forest eagle of Samar.* The only skin of an 

 adult bird of this species is that sent home bj' 

 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 J/^/s in a paper by 

 Mr. Ogilvie Grant. Its combined weapons of 

 beak and claw are more formidable than those 

 of any 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 bodj' is no less remarkable than its 

 weight. Some of the most interesting of the 

 smaller Philippine birds collected by Mr. White- 

 head are shown, together with their nests, in 

 the cases in the bird gallery- at the Museum, 

 among them being a series of sun-birds, diminu- 

 tive creatures with the colours of Humming- 

 birds, but of more prosaic shape. That called 

 after its discoverer has a black head, with pur- 

 ple iridescence, a black back, and a crimson 

 belly; others are scarlet, purple, black, and 

 3'ellow. 



"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 the\' were attached, are more 

 interesting than the birds themselves. Manj' 

 of them are of shapes and materials quite unlike 

 an\- seen elsewhere, and absolutely different 

 from an^- of the "stock designs" of nests made 

 b^- 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 

 larg-e fleshy- leaf. It looks as if made up from 

 small square frag-ments 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 usualU- 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 ex- 

 citing- 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 valua- 

 ble 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 com- 

 munitv". 



*Tbe refer ence to the forest eagle of Samar in the above account is not strictly correct. Probably the first specimen 

 of this bird ever collected was obtained by Messrs. Bourns and Worcester, on the island of Negros, about 1891. This 

 specimen is in the collection of the Minnesota Academy of Sciences. — C. W. R. 



