NATURE 



605 



THURSDAY, APRIL 26, igcx). 



THE BIRDS OF CELEBES. 

 Tlie Birds of Celebes and the Neighbouring Islands. By 



A. B. Meyer and L. W. Wiglesworth. Two volumes. 



Pp. xxxiii, 392 and 590 ; with 45 plates and 7 maps. 



(Berlin : R. Friedlander und Sohn, 1898.) 

 TJ^EW regions of the world approach in interest to the 

 -*- naturalist the wide Archipelago strung upon the 

 equator, between the Asiatic and the Australian continents, 

 both of which claim a share in the broken lands between 

 which Wallace's Line rides the marches. Of all these 

 islands none perhaps have attracted more attention than 

 Celebes, notably on account of its strange configuration, 

 but especially from its central position in the archipelago 

 which has given a remarkable character to its fauna, the 

 affinities of which have bandied it from one to the other 

 of the two zoological realms between which it lies. To 

 which of them it will finally appertain must still remain an 

 open question till it has been more fully explored, botani- 

 cally as well as zoologically. Towards the settling of 

 this question, however. Dr. Meyer, the distinguished 

 Director of the Royal Museum in Dresden, in collabora- 

 tion with Mr. L. W. Wiglesworth, has made a notable 

 contribution in the work under notice, wherein the 

 ornithology of the Celebesian area (as the authors name 

 the main island plus the neighbouring islet groups in its 

 immediate vicinity) is discussed. Both authors have 

 brought special qualifications to their task, for both have 

 large experience as observers in the field. Dr. Meyer 

 having several years' personal knowledge of the area in 

 question. That every care has been taken by them in the 

 preparation of this monograph is testified to by the six 

 years of constant toil which the subject has exacted from 

 them. 



The systematic account of the individual species found 

 in the area is prefaced by a valuable introduction of 130 

 pages, in which the authors give a short biographical note 

 concerning the naturalists and collectors who have worked 

 or written upon the birds of Celebes. This is followed 

 by an account of the seasons and winds (illustrated by 

 two coloured maps) in the East Indian Archipelago, in 

 their relation to the dispersal and distribution of the 

 birds. A section is next devoted to migration in the 

 archipelago, with reference to which the authors remark 

 that "during our studies it has become abundantly 

 evident to us that ornithologists are not generally aware 

 that migration goes on in the East Indies to the great 

 extent it does." They enumerate fifty-four "of the more 

 prominent migratory birds of Celebes," with tables which 

 tend to " prove that each species has its own route or 

 routes of migration." Some of these species come from 

 Norway via Siberia, China and the Philippines to North 

 Celebes, and go no further ; others hold on their course 

 to New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand ; while 

 yet others fly directly from Northern Asia and Japan to 

 the Philippines, North Celebes or the Moluccas, hugging 

 the coast of the Western Pacific. In their return journey 

 the migrants do not appear " always to return in spring 

 by the route pursued in autumn, often apparently being 

 rare or absent in districts through which they pass in 

 NO. I 591, VOL. 6t] 



abundance in other seasons," wh^le a few remain and 

 probably breed in their winter quarters. As to the causes 

 of migration, however, the authors afford us no new facts 

 or suggestions tending to bring us nearer the solution of 

 the " mystery of mysteries " of bird life. 



A further section of the introduction is devoted to the 

 subject of " variation or modification of structure and 

 plumage" among the birds of .Celebes, under the head- 

 ings of individual and of geographical variation ; seasonal 

 changes ; sexual differences, and changes depending 

 upon age. Under the last heading the authors provide 

 "some evidence drawn from Celebesian birds that modi- 

 fications of shape ... of feathers are caused by the 

 ever-repeated action of mechanical attrition . . . and are 

 ultimately transmitted to off"spring," and they take as 

 one of their examples the case of the racket tail feathers 

 of Prionituriis. The two middle tail feathers of these 

 birds " are prolonged much beyond the others, and in 

 adult birds the over-reaching portion of these two rectrices 

 is converted into a bare shaft tipped with a spatule of 

 ordinary web." Drawings are given from specimens in the 

 Dresden Museum showing that the feathers come in in 

 the adult birds with the shafts bare, a character which 

 must therefore be congenital and hereditary. According 

 to the authors, the course of events must have been as 

 follows : — the two middle tail feathers becoming (for no 

 specified or known reason) a little longer than the rest, 

 were by attrition on the twigs of trees, walls of their 

 nesting-holes, &c., narrowed at the tips ; the friction re- 

 acting on their roots resulted in still greater lengthening 

 of the feathers ; further attrition resulted in half-formed 

 rackets [why .?] ; still further continued attrition and 

 further lengthening of the feathers resulted in the " pro- 

 duction of other stages up to the most advanced develop- 

 ment of the present time "— " a process of ages, more and 

 more advanced results being obtained in successive 

 generations and transmitted by heredity." Their " argu- 

 ments in proof that these rackets are the inherited effects 

 of attrition" are shortly: (i) that such can easily be 

 formed artificially by scraping ; (2) where the shafts are 

 not exposed to attrition they are not bare ; (3) rackets do 

 not occur on unexposed feathers sheltered from attrition ; 

 (4) rackets are present in birds having no affinity with 

 one another over the most varied positions ; (5) remains 

 of the web are often to be found on the shaft of the 

 racket ; (6) there appears to be no other means for 

 accounting for their origin— they are not sexual, not use- 

 ful, and not "recognition markings"; (7) the Motmots 

 which produce these racket tail feathers by biting, now 

 produce incipient rackets hereditarily. These argu- 

 ments (.?) hardly carry conviction ; but if the truth be 

 that the rackets are the inherited effects of attrition, one 

 asks why so few feathers specially exposed to attrition 

 by twigs and sides of holes, &c., as the external rectrices 

 and remiges of all birds, and specially the exterior 

 lengthened feathers of wedge-shaped tails {Dicrurus\ are 

 neither bare nor racket-shaped nor incipiently so. One 

 points also to the middle tail feathers of the maX&Paradisea 

 rubra, which— judging their development by the progress 

 of their moult, as the authors do— begin " rather shorter 

 than the } est 0/ the tail," then are " moderately lengthened 

 and with webs narrowed in the middle," and finally end 



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