71 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



they had on very occasional (sometimes at in- 

 tervals of two or three years) arrivals of trading 

 schooners. These never made the islands under 

 ordinary circumstances, as they were so remote 

 from the usual routes and also so poorly fur- 

 nished with the usual matters of trade, but 

 would no doubt do so "if sufficient inducement 

 ottered." as the steamer announcements put it. 

 One of the places which the traders regularly 

 visited happened to include a nesting site of the 

 frigate-birds. It was by means of this that our 

 islanders ( I believe they were part of the Ellice 

 group, but am not sure) communicated with the 

 outside world. .lust before the nesting-season 

 they caught a certain number of birds to whose 

 legs they tied bladders: after which they let 

 them go. The bladders contained pieces of 

 stone, stick, shell, etc.. which constituted the 

 message. This always referred to the amount 

 of "trade" (copra, pearl-shell, or whatever it 

 was) ready for removal. As far as my inform- 

 ant knew, no more personal news was sent, at 

 any rate nothing written, for that was an art 

 beyond them. In due course the birds repaired 



to their breeding-place. Here any would-be 

 visitor caught any bladder-bearing bird he saw. 

 and no doubt decided from the news thus 

 brought whether it was worth his while making 

 the journey to their place of origin. That it 

 would be easy to catch the nesting-birds is ob- 

 vious, but how the first captures were managed 

 is by no means so clear. If they were caught 

 just before the breeding season, they must then 

 have been full-winged. This point never struck 

 me till I read the missionary's note; his were 

 caught young, and this may have been the ease 

 with the others also, but even so, where were 

 they caught? It could not have been at the 

 breeding-place, for then there would have been 

 no need for the employment of the birds as 

 messengers, for the message itself could have 

 been left by the catchers, and had a more cer- 

 tain chance of meeting the eye of the proper 

 recipient. The whole point of the need for the 

 birds was the remoteness of the islanders in 

 question and the single breeding-place which 

 was used by every bird for hundreds of miles 

 round. 



THE TROPICAL RESEARCH STATION 



By William Beebe. 



THE Society's Tropical Research Station in 

 British Guiana was established in 1916 at 

 Kalacoon on the Mazaruni River. Late in 

 1917 the work was continued for a short time 

 directly across the river within the park-like 

 boundaries of the Penal Settlement. Early in 

 April of the present year, it was shifted upriver. 

 to the apex of the triangle at Kartabo where 

 a permanent home has been found. The large 

 bungalow which is being used as a laboratory 

 was erected a number of years ago by an Amer- 

 ican mining company who ceased work after 

 taking out $800,000 worth of nuggets and dust. 

 The Station is at the very point of juncture 

 of the Mazaruni and Cuyuni Rivers (see map 

 in Zoological Society's Bulletin, July. 1916. p. 

 1.370) and is of considerable historical interest. 

 Over three hundred years ago. the Dutch settled 

 here, built a little Stadi Haus and raised cas- 

 sava. They brought bamboo seedlings from 

 Java and planted them, and today there are 

 more than a score of clumps of giant bamboos 

 about the laboratory. Now. as then, the jungle 

 comes up behind to the very edge of the clear- 

 ing, and so abundant is the wild life that for 

 three months none of us have been more than a 

 mile away from the laboratory. 



Within ten minutes walk are sandy and rocky 

 beaches, mangroves, grassland, swamp and high 

 jungle, each with a wealth of life peculiar to 

 itself. The front gallery looks out upon a wide 

 expanse of water — the junction of the two great 

 rivers, one bringing gold-bearing sediment from 

 Venezuela, the other with the flotsam of strange 

 seeds from far distant Brazilian mountain 

 streams. Sometimes terrific wind storms sweep 

 down on us. bending the bamboos and blowing 

 our macaw off his perch, followed by driving 

 rain which floods our compound gutters, and 

 cuts deep channels in sand and white clay 

 banks. Half an hour later the water is like a 

 silvered mirror, broken now and then by dol- 

 phins, or fresh-water flying fish, or great pacus 

 and lucanannis. which come up, roll, and de- 

 scend in the swirl of their own vortices. 



A careful enumeration of the sounds alone 

 which we hear from the laboratory during a 

 period of twenty-four hours would indicate the 

 diversity and abundance of animal life at Kar- 

 tabo. The morning chorus begins at 5:30 sharp, 

 with the loud cries of the kiskadee. and the 

 son<rs of our nesting wrens, and works up to a 

 climax with such varied noises as the roaring 

 of the red howling monkeys, the yapping of 



