Correspondence



327



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.


THE AMERICAN WHITNEY EXPEDITION


I regret that owing to illness I have been unable to answer before the two

letters in the Magazine regarding the Whitney Expedition. As I was the

Individual who opened up the question of the indiscriminate slaughter of

rare birds in the South Seas and the islands around New Zealand by this

■expedition, I will, as briefly as possible, state my case.


In the first place I have no wish to give the impression that I have any

personal prejudice against the expedition, neither do I wish to stir up old

mud. My object was to try and do something that would help to put a stop

to the terrible slaughter of birds which is going on all over the world to-day

in the name of Science. Not a year goes by but sees the passing of some rare

and isolated island species. And it was with the object of doing something

to save these vanishing species that I opened up the question of giving,

by British representatives, permits to such expeditions for the wholesale

collection of these rare island species.


After all, the living bird is much better than dozens of perishable skins

in the various local museums in the United States or even a large series in

the New York Museum. It does not matter quite so much as some scientists

think, whether the third primary of a certain species is an eighth of an inch

longer than that of another species from some other island ; to kill a whole

series of birds to prove this is nothing short of a crime. This may sound

rather an exaggeration but it has been done with many species of Petrels.


Few people realize how interdependent the flora and the fauna of these

islands are on one another, the destruction of one means in time the death of

another; for instance, many species of flowering trees are dependent on

certain species of birds for the fertilization of these flowers, the pollen

adhering to the feathers around the beak of the bird and these are transferred

to the other blossoms. Again, certain species of Fruit Pigeons are necessary

for the distribution of the various seeds of forest trees.


Meeting many people in New Zealand, Fiji, and elsewhere, who were

interested in natural history, I heard a great deal about the depredations of

this expedition, especially from Norfolk Island and Fiji. As the parties were

quite disinterested people I have no hesitation in believing their statements.

These allegations I will not repeat or I may find myself brought up to prove

these statements in a law court which I could not possibly do, for besides

living at the other end of the earth I have lost touch with my informants.

I will merely take the species with which I am directly concerned, the

Masked Parrakeet (Pyrrhulopsis personatus) for instance. My object in

going to Viti Levu, the largest of the Fiji Islands, was to try and find out

something about this bird and to try if possible to obtain a live specimen, and

to find out if it was as rare as supposed. I stayed for some time on the island,

going into the forests in the interior and questioning everyone who was

likely to know anything about the bird or its whereabouts, and I have no

hesitation in stating that if not extinct it is nearly so. Now, it is stated

officially that twenty-six skins were taken ; to obtain these many others would

be wounded and others shot would be lost in the dense vegetation. To obtain

this number the whole island was, as I am told in Fiji, thoroughly scoured.

To slaughter this number of birds when the species is nearly extinct is, to

say the least, despicable.



