Nevermore
Page 10
The cloak of King Kamehameha described by Captain George Vancouver was constructed over a period of eight generations of kings, and was believed to have been made from the plumes of over 80,000 birds. The thousands of golden plumes that made up these royal cloaks were taken almost entirely from the four O-O species (Moho apicalis, M. bishopi, M. nobilis, M. braccata) and the single Mamo species (Drepanis pacifica) – all of which are now extinct. This cloak was the feathered equivalent of the crown jewels of the Hawaiian kings. However, it doesn’t appear as if this was the ultimate cause of their extinction, as it was forbidden for commoners to hunt these birds or possess their feathers except on behalf of the royal family. Also according to some accounts, many of these birds were captured and stripped of their gold plumes rather than killed.
Goats, sheep and cattle put ashore by Captain Cook and Captain Vancouver between 1778 and 1794 caused extensive damage to native forests. Subsequently, much forest has been cut down by Europeans in order to plant sugar, pineapples and coffee. Imported rats, cats and mongoose took a terrible toll on native birds, while imported domestic pigeons resulted in a plague of avian malaria that exterminated all Honeycreepers and Honeyeaters below 4,000 feet in altitude – which is the range of its deadly imported carrier, the Night Mosquito.
Nor were the islands’ birds the only victims of the European invasions that followed Captain Cook. The native Polynesian population at the time of Cook’s visit was estimated between 400,000 and 800,000. By 1900, the native population was 40,000, and by 1950 it was less than 10,000, or a decrease of 98% of their original population, and only 2% of the Hawaiian non-native population of 500,000. By 2010 it had increased to 250,000 or nearly 20% of Hawaii’s 1¼ million population.
HAWAII O-O – 1934 – Moho nobilis
Coenraad Jacob Temminck – 1838
Manuel D’Ornithology, Leiden, Holland
The most striking characteristic of Moho noblis is a tuft of beautiful long silky feathers decorating each flank; the bright yellow colour of this waving plume makes a pleasing contrast to the otherwise dark colouring of its plumage. These are the feathers Sandwich Islanders use to make their cloaks. The English traveller Dixon tells us they catch these birds with ease, pull out bunches of feathers on the flanks, and then let the birds go.
The first O-O Honeyeater to become extinct was the Oahu O-O (Moho aplicalis) in 1837. This was undoubtedly because Oahu was the most densely populated island and the location of the port of Honolulu. The second extinction was the related but non-Moho species, the Kioea (Chaetoptila angustipluma) in 1850; and the third was the Molokai O-O (Moho bishopi) in 1904. The Hawaiian O-O (Moho noblis) was the most numerous species of Hawaiian Islands Honeyeaters because its habitat on the Big Island of Hawaii was the most extensive. Because of this, it was nearly the last of the Honeyeaters to become extinct, in 1934. The only exception was a tiny population of Kuaia O-O (Moho braccata) which miraculously survived until 1987 in an isolated patch of forest in a high-altitude volcanic cone within the island. This was above the range of the Night Mosquito and, as the site of the world’s highest recorded rainfall, of little interest to feral cats.
In 2008 DNA analysis revealed that Hawaiian Honeyeaters did not evolve from Australasian Honeyeaters (Meliphagidae), and that they belonged to the entirely distinct family of Mohoidae, consisting of two genera and five species. This is the only known extinction of an entire avian family in historic times.
KAUAI O-O – 1987 – Moho braccata
J. C. Greenway – 1967
Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World , New York
Five forms of the Honeyeater family – known as the O-O – were once to be found on as many of the Hawaiian Islands. These were all strikingly beautiful, either brown or jet black, with metallic reflections and with bright yellow ornamental plumes. All of these are now extinct. Because the natives captured them for their yellow plumes it has often been said that they were extirpated by the Hawaiians, but it is not probable that this was the cause of their disappearance. As in the case of the extinction of twenty forms of the Hawaiian Honeycreepers, it is probable that destruction of the native forests is the primary cause.
Honeycreepers were the youngest of all bird families and among the most beautiful and varied. All descended from one ancestor species that a century ago had evolved into 9 genera, twenty-two species and sixty-four subspecies. All measured from 10 to 21 cm and were brilliantly coloured with specialized beak forms for feeding on flowering trees.
Ninety-seven percent of all Hawaiian plant and tree species are endemic and unique to the islands. By 1950, three quarters of the natural forests were lost to cultivation, cattle browsing or fire. Over 270 plant species, subspecies and varieties are known to be extinct and 800 more are endangered. In fact, an astonishing sixty percent of the 68 known forms of native land birds are probably extinct.
As noted, all five endemic Hawaiian Honeyeaters are now extinct; and forty percent of all endemic Hawaiian Honeycreepers are also gone. These include: the Mamo (Drepanis pacifica), Black Mamo (Drepanis funereal), Ula-Ai-Hawane (Ciridops anna), Laysan Apapane (Himatione sanguinea freethi), Great Amakihi (Loxops sagittiriostris), Molokai Alauwahio (Loxops maculata flammea), Lanai Alauwahio (Loxops maculate montana), Oahu Akepa (Loxops coccinea rufa) Hawaiian Akiola (Hemingnathus obscurus obscurus), Lanai Akiola (Hemingnathus obscurus lanaiesis), Oahu Akiola (Hemingnathus obscurus ellisianus), Kauai Akiola (Hemingnathus obscurus procerus), Oahu Nukupuu (Hemingnathus lucidus lucidus), Kauai Nukupuu (Hemingnathus lucidus hanapepe), Maui Nukupuu (Hemingnathus lucidus affinis), Greater Koa Finch (Psittirostra palmeri), Lesser Koa Finch (Psittirostra flaviceps), and Kona Finch (Psittirostra kona).
THE ANCESTORS
Hawaiian Oahu O-O – 1837
The Ancestors prepare to sail
They raise the mast of the outrigger
And pray to Kanaloa
For a calm sea and swift passage
As a fair wind rises, the Ancestors
Depart for the isle of the Feathered Gods
Where still the lush Koa forests bloom
And the winged jewel-and-gem birds
Sing to the glory of flowering trees
Where fly the O-O and the Mamo
Whose whirring wings are fashioned
Of glittering gold and the sheen of jet
Where they feed on the honey flower
With the emerald Amakihi
And the ruby bright Alauwahio
And others with plumes the colour
Of citrine, tourmaline, amethyst and pearl
Flit through forests heavy with flower and fruit
Filled with bird song and sunlight
THE VAN DYKE
THIRD WATCH 11 P. M. COMPLINE
IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER – 1951 – Campephilus principalis
Mark Cateby – 1731
Natural History of Carolina, Florida and Bahama Islands
The Bill is white as Ivory, three inches long, and channelled from basis to the point: the Iris of the eye is yellow: the hind-part of the Head adorned with a large peaked crest of scarlet-feathers: a crooked stripe runs from the eye on each side the Neck, towards the Wing: the lower part of the Back and Wings (except the large Quill-feathers) are white, all the rest of the Bird is black. The Bills of these Birds are much valued by the Canada Indians, who make coronets of them for their Princes and great warriors by fixing them round a Wreath, with their points outward. The Northern Indians, having none of these Birds in their cold country purchase them from the Southern people at the price of two, and sometimes three buck-skins a bill.
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker was always a rather rare bird. As early as 1785, the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant reported that the bird was “scarce.” Its territory was broad but it was very specialized and thinly populated. Before the heyday of the timber industry (1800-1900) the Ivory-bill inhabited all mature low-lying timberland in south-eastern North America. It needed considerable tracts of mature timberland to be able t
o find sufficient food to live on; each breeding pair would cover a territory of more than 2000 acres. And with their conspicuous markings and loud, resonant calls these red-crested birds were once relatively easy to find in their habitats.
The pre-eminent pioneer of American natural history of the time was the English artist-naturalist Mark Cateby with his landmark Natural History of Carolina, Florida and Bahama Islands: Containing the Figures of Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, Insects and Plants. Nearly a century before Audubon, Cateby was the first naturalist to create folio-size colour engraved plates.
Cateby was the first ornithologist to publish a description of this bird which he called the “Large White-Billed Woodpecker, ” but he mentions that “the Spaniards call ’em Carpentaros” because of their rapid destruction of wood. It is best known as the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, but over the years became known by a variety of other names: Pearl Bill or Pearly-billed Woodpecker, King Woodpecker, Log-Cock, King Wood Cock, and Lord God Bird. In Louisiana, the Cajun French knew the bird as Grand pique-bois, Poule de bois, and Grand Pic Noir a bec blanc.
Alexander Wilson – 1812
American Ornithology , North Carolina
I had secured a wounded specimen of this remarkable bird and saw no harm in keeping it for a short time in my hotel room. In less than an hour I returned, and, on opening my door he set up a distressing shout, which appeared to proceed from grief that he had been discovered in his attempt to escape. He had mounted along the side of the window, nearly as high as the ceiling, a little below which he began to break through. The bed was covered with large pieces of plaster, the lath was exposed for at least fifteen inches square, and a hole large enough to admit a fist, opened to the weatherboards; so that, in less than another hour he would certainly have succeeded in making his way out.
Alexander Wilson was a Scottish-American poet, naturalist, illustrator – and the most important pre-Audubon figure in American ornithology. Indeed, Audubon’s encounter with the older artist-naturalist in Louisville, Kentucky in 1810 may have inspired him to consider publishing his own work. Wilson began his encyclopaedic American Ornithology in 1805. It was published in 9 volumes from 1808 to 1814 and included 268 species. Wilson died in 1813 before the last volume could be printed.
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker was certainly the most famous of all Woodpeckers. At 20 inches (50 cm) and over one pound in weight (500 gm) it is among the most spectacular; however, it was actually only the second largest species. The largest – measuring a remarkable 23 inches (58 cm) – was the Imperial Woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis), which once inhabited the mature pine forests of Mexico’s Sierra Madres. Similar in size to the Raven, the Imperial was nearly twice the weight of the Ivory-bill. Only one ornithologist had observed this bird while it was alive. The first specimen was acquired in 1832, and the last in 1950.
Not a single photograph of a live Imperial Woodpecker was known to exist. Astonishingly, in 2011 Cornell University released newly acquired film footage of a living Imperial Woodpecker. This remarkable vivid 16mm colour film was taken by an amateur ornithologist and dentist from Pennsylvania, named William L. Rhein. In 1956, Dr. Rhein travelled to the district of Durango in the Sierra Madres where, while riding on a mule, he spotted and filmed an adult female Imperial Woodpecker in some ancient pine trees. Dr. Rhein died in 1999, apparently unaware of the historic significance of his home movie.
John James Audubon – 1826
Ornithological Biography , Kentucky
I have always imagined, that in the plumage of the beautiful Ivory-billed Woodpecker, there is something very closely allied to the style of colouring of the great Van Dyke. The broad extent of its dark glossy body and tail, the large and well-defined white markings of its wings, neck and bill, relieved by the rich carmine of the pendent crest of the male, and the brilliant yellow of its eye, have never failed to remind me of some of the boldest productions of that inimitable artist’s pencil. The flight of this bird is graceful in the extreme. The transit from one tree to another, even should the distance be as much as a hundred yards, is performed by a single sweep, and the bird appears as if merely swinging itself from the top of the one tree to that of the other, forming an elegantly curved line. At this moment all the beauty of the plumage is exhibited, and strikes the beholder with pleasure. Its notes are clear, loud, yet rather plaintive. They are heard at a considerable distance, perhaps half a mile, and resemble the false high note of a clarinet they are usually repeated three times in succession, and may be represented by the monosyllable pait, pait, pait.
John James Audubon is the third and greatest of America’s pioneering ornithologist-artists. The Ivory-bill was one of his favourite subjects, and became the most sought-after and investigated of all rare birds. It has been estimated that not more than 500 Ivory-bills survived into the first half of the 20th century, yet during that time 400 traceable specimens were collected by museums: 140 in just two American museums alone. The last verified sighting of an American Ivory-billed Woodpecker was in 1951.
For a time, it seemed that the last hope for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker resided in a sole surviving subspecies: Campephilus principalis bairdii in Cuba. In 1960, there were theoretical estimates that a small population of twenty Cuban Ivory-billed Woodpeckers were surviving in a remote Cuban forest reserve. Sadly, by 1974, this population had vanished; but then in March of 1986, hope was again renewed with a possible sighting of a pair of birds in Cuba’s Jaguani Forest Reserve. However, since that time nothing more has been reported.
President Theodore Roosevelt – 1907
Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography , Louisiana
In stature, in towering majesty, the Louisiana cypress are unsurpassed by any trees of our eastern forest; lordlier kings of the green-leaved world are not be found until we reach the sequoias and redwoods of the Sierras… . The most notable birds and those which most interested me were the great Ivory-billed woodpeckers. Of these I saw three, all of them in groves of giant cypress; their brilliant white bills contrasting finely with the black of their general plumage. They were noisy but wary, and they seemed to me to set off the wilderness of the swamp as much as any of the beasts of the chase.
In 1907, Theodore Roosevelt set out on a bear hunt in the ancient cypress forests (in what became known as the Singer Forest Reserve) near Tallulah, Louisiana. Roosevelt’s hunting ground was the last great swath of virgin Mississippi River hardwood bottomland forest left in America – and consequently the last refuge of the nation’s Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Over the next two decades there were very few sightings of a bird that many believed was extinct.
In 1935, however, seven pairs of America’s rarest bird were discovered on the reserve. Then, from 1937 to 1939, James Tanner managed (at the last possible moment) to study and film a nesting pair in the reserve and produce his authoritative study The Ivory-billed Woodpecker. However, by 1939, the Singer population declined to just six birds, and Tanner estimated the entire population of Ivory-bills in America was not more than twenty-two birds.
After the destruction of the old growth habitat on the Singer Reserve by large scale logging operations, there was only one fully confirmed sighting of the Ivory-bill in America in 1951. However, there have been many unconfirmed sightings and a multitude of second-hand accounts throughout rural southern United States. Most of these appear to have been sightings of that other large red-headed Woodpecker, the Pileated Woodpecker (Drocopus pileatus).
In 2005, there was believed to be a valid sighting of the bird in the “Big Woods” Forest Reserve in Arkansas. This was followed up by video evidence of a living Ivory-billed Woodpecker. However, the video has proved to be highly controversial, and despite a massive multi-million dollar search and monitoring operation, nothing has subsequently been seen or heard of the Lord God Bird.
THE LORD GOD BIRD
Ivory-billed Woodpecker – 1951
Forged in the deep brilliant mind
Of some savage god
Then hidden away, in the twisting of river bends
Mazing channels, sloughs and levees
And in the swelling waters of these ancient forests
Of giant cypress, blackgum and red ash
Mohawk red crest mounted
On a flickering jackhammer head
The “thump, thump, thump”
Beating heart of the bayou
The swooping fiery spirit
Of this twilight world
Flame we can no longer see
Song we can no longer hear
Searching for this bird, we find
In the lost language of the Natchez
Only the word “Pu-kup” meaning “red”
We learn its “yap yap yap” call
Was followed by a plaintive cry
Like the sound of a tin horn,
Or a cracked clarinet
Now at one with the vanished
Biloxi, Muskogee and Quapaw
“Downstream People”
Flame we can no longer see
Song we can no longer hear
SCREAM OF THE QUAGGA
FIRST WATCH 12 P. M. MIDNIGHT
QUAGGA – 1883 – Equus quagga quagga
George Edwards – 1758
Gleanings of Natural History, London
This curious animal was brought alive, together with the male, from the Cape of Good Hope: the male dying before they arrived at London, I did not see it; but this female lived several years at a house of his Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, at Kew. The noise it made was much different from that of an ass, resembling more the confused barking of a mastiff-dog. It seemed to be savage and fierce in nature: no one would venture to approach it, and could not mount on its back. I saw it eat a large paper of tobacco, paper and all; and I was told, it would eat flesh, or any kind of food they would give it. I suppose that proceeding from necessity, or habit, in its long sea voyage; for it undoubtedly feeds naturally much as other horses and asses do, I mean on vegetables.