Neal L. Evenhuis, editor. Barefoot on Lava: The Journals and Correspondence of Naturalist R.C.L. Perkins in Hawai`i, 1892-1901.<\/i> Bishop Museum Press: Honolulu, 2007. 412 pages. Hardcover: $29.95.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am off on Monday to Lana`i, there is an all but extinct bird there I have not got & I much want it.\u201d<\/p>\n
So wrote the naturalist Robert C.L. Perkins in a letter to Charles Reed Bishop in June of 1894, shortly before Perkins set sail for Lana`i to hunt down the rare Hemignathus lanaiensis<\/i>, or Lana`i `akialoa. Today, it\u2019s shocking to think that a species\u2019 imminent extinction would spark a race to hunt down the last individual to complete a collection of bird skins for a given museum or institution. But, as shown in Perkins\u2019 letters and reminiscences, carefully compiled and edited by Neal Evenhuis in Barefoot on Lava<\/i>, Perkins\u2019 views were typical of his time. The extinction of many Hawaiian bird species was regarded by him and his peers as practically inevitable; the challenge they saw themselves facing, as collectors, was to make as complete a record as possible of the islands\u2019 fauna before it was further impoverished.<\/p>\n
\tPerkins, Henry Palmer, Scott Wilson, and George Munro \u2013 all were stalking and shooting Hawaiian birds in the 1890s, during the peak of what Alan Ziegler has called the \u201cprofessional naturalist period\u201d (1870-1900) in Hawaiian history. Perkins, in fact, was almost certainly not the most zealous of the bird collectors; having been trained as an entomologist, he spent much of his time in the field beating the bushes (literally) for insects.<\/p>\n
\tStill, Perkins was responsible for probably a thousand or more Hawaiian bird skins (stuffed birds) being shipped back to England, thence distributed by his sponsors to museums around the world. And those represent just a fraction of the birds he killed but could not preserve for various reasons (the body was too damaged; he couldn\u2019t locate the carcass; feral cats got to his tent and destroyed birds not yet stuffed; decomposition). \u201cAt least 25 percent of the birds I see I cannot shoot at [for fear of not being able to gather them] and the same percentage I lose,\u201d he wrote, \u201calthough I never shoot at any bird, rare or common, unless I think I have a really good chance of picking it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe numbers of birds shot by \tPalmer and Munro were far higher. These two men were sent to Hawai`i to collect for Lionel Walter Rothschild, of the banking Rothschild family. Rothschild had studied ornithology at Cambridge and set up a privately owned museum at his family estate. As Bill Bryson writes in A Short History of Nearly Everything,<\/i> the second Baron Rothschild \u201cwas a strange and reclusive fellow. He lived his entire life in the nursery wing of his home at Tring, in Buckinghamshire, using the furniture of his childhood \u2013 even sleeping in his childhood bed, though eventually he weighed three hundred pounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tRothschild, Bryson says, \u201cbecame a devoted accumulator of objects. He sent hordes of trained men \u2013 as many as four hundred at a time \u2013 to every quarter of the globe to clamber over mountains and hack their way through jungles in the pursuit of new specimens \u2013 particularly things that flew.\u201d Other collectors may have acquired even more things than Rothschild, but, says Bryson, Rothschild was \u201ceasily the most scientific collector of his age,\u201d and also \u201cthe most regrettably lethal, for in the 1890s he became interested in Hawai`i.\u201d Working for Rothschild, Palmer and Munro \u201cbrought back for the Tring museum a total of 1,832 skins of birds, among them 10 species new to science,\u201d writes Evenhuis in a chapter called \u201cBackground to Collecting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThroughout Perkins\u2019 time in Hawai`i, the specter of Rothschild loomed large in his thoughts and actions. Perkins\u2019 masters, notably ornithologist Alfred Newton, who headed up the Sandwich Islands Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, \u201cfelt that Rothschild intended to monopolize the credit and glory associated with the new bird discoveries that were to be made in the Hawaiian islands and was sparing no expense to get there first.\u201d Evenhuis describes this as an \u201cimaginary \u2018war\u2019 of bird collecting,\u201d but Perkins\u2019 own writings show the competition was real enough to him and Newton.<\/p>\n
\tIn early 1892, as Perkins was planning his trip to Hawai`i, Newton provided a guide to the islands that was intended to direct Perkins\u2019 research. On the island of Hawai`i, Newton wrote, \u201cthere is yet good hope that novelties may be discovered there\u2026. It appears quite possible that Chloridops kona [the Kona grosbeak] \u2026 may occur frequently at higher elevations\u2026 and this possibility is increased by what I hear of Mr. Rothschild\u2019s collection having gotten some 20 or 30 examples\u2026 Mr. Rothschild\u2019s men have also found another new finch of which the male is red & the female is green or brown.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAdditional references to \u201cRothschild\u2019s men\u201d come up frequently in the letters Perkins exchanged with his sponsors in England. David Sharp of Cambridge warned Perkins in May 1892 that, in the case of birds, at least, \u201cI presume what you have learned from Prof.r Newton [is] that discretion & knowledge [of] what to look for are of more importance than they are in the invertebrates.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tNewton continued to goad Perkins to match or more than match the specimens that Rothschild reported his collectors to have taken. In 1893, he provided Perkins with a list of \u201cthis year\u2019s discoveries\u201d by Rothschild\u2019s men, concluding with the Bishop\u2019s `o`o. \u201cPray don\u2019t neglect to get it,\u201d Newton exhorted Perkins.<\/p>\n
\tJust a few weeks later, Perkins reported success. \u201cI am most pleased with my Moloka`i collecting. I got both birds discovered by Rothschild\u2019s collectors \u2013 the beautiful Moloka`i `o`o \u2013 a finer thing than the Hawaiian one as it has long yellow feathers about its ears as well as under the wings\u2026 Also the other fine thing, the crested bird \u2013 Palmeria mirabilis. But the best of all was a fine new all black bird, a connecting link between the old \u2018mamo\u2019 of Hawai`i & the `Akialoas & therefore of particular interest. It was a great score for me to get this after Rothschild\u2019s collectors had overrun the island for 3 months just before\u201d (p. 183). (The \u201cnew all black bird,\u201d the black mamo, was later named Drepanis funerea<\/i> at Newton\u2019s suggestion, in recognition \u201cnot only [of] its somber colouring, but in allusion to the sad fate that probably awaits it,\u201d he wrote to Perkins [p. 188].)<\/p>\n
\tBy the 1890s, many native bird species were already rare, and others suspected of having become extinct. Take, for example, the Lana`i akialoa that was the object of Perkins\u2019 vain search in 1894. Perkins writes that he had seen a lone `akialoa, in full breeding plumage, while on Lana`i just six months earlier. That individual may have been the sole survivor of a shooting frenzy by Edward Wolstenholme, an assistant to Palmer. In 1893, Wolstenholme told Perkins that \u201che killed all the few Hemignathus on Lana`i, when he was alone\u2026 He killed all these either in one day or else in one bush\u201d (p. 132).<\/p>\n
\tThe profligacy with which birds were killed by Perkins and his contemporaries makes Evenhuis\u2019 book difficult reading at times. For example, in an early trip to South Kona (July-August 1892), the birds killed by Perkins included two dozen Kona grosbeaks, 16 greater koa finches (Rhodacanthis palmeri)<\/i>, and at least one `alala (Corvus hawaiiensis<\/i>). (Today a captive population of `alala continues to produce a few young each year; the other species are extinct.)<\/p>\n
\tOn O`ahu, the story was much the same. Perkins was feeling pressure from Newton to \u201cobtain some of the old O`ahu birds, which no one had collected for many years,\u201d he later wrote. One such \u201cold bird\u201d was the O`ahu `akialoa (Hemignathus o. ellisianus<\/i>). Going the extra mile to see if any of these birds could be found in the Nu`uanu Valley area, Perkins ascended the valley sides. \u201cOn one occasion,\u201d he wrote, \u201cI saw what I had no doubt was a pair of Hemignathus.\u201d<\/p>\n \tBefore this, the last confirmed sighting of an O`ahu `akialoa occurred in 1837. After Perkins, it was never reliably reported to be seen again.<\/p>\n \tPerkins recounts another occasion that involved one of the last known sightings of another by-then rare bird, the O`ahu `akepa (Loxops c. rufus<\/i>). At the time (April 1893), Perkins was sharing a cabin with Palmer and Wolstonholme in the Kawailoa area. \u201cI stayed with them some time in their tent and was present with Wolstenholme when he shot the male Loxops rufa, which had not been obtained since Lord Byron\u2019s visit in 1825. There was a second specimen in company with this, probably a female, but though we heard it, we did not get a sight of it nor any other specimen. \u2026 Palmer and his colleague again camped for some time where the Loxops occurred, but failed to find another.\u201d Perkins writes that some 10 years later, when he was collecting insects with Albert Koebele, he came across a pair of Loxops \u201cfar back in the forest in the Wahiawa district, but I had no gun with me at the time\u201d (p. 110).<\/p>\n \tThe question inevitably arises: could the enthusiastic collectors, both amateur and professional, of the time have caused the extinctions?<\/p>\n \tA list of Hawai`i\u2019s extinct species found on the Bishop Museum\u2019s website shows that of 24 birds known to have become extinct since western contact, 9 of them were last seen in the 1890s (10, if you count Perkins\u2019 sighting of the O`ahu `akialoa). It is possible, of course, that this is simply coincidence. Tremendous changes in Hawai`i\u2019s landscape had occurred during the 1800s. Shortly after his arrival to the islands, Perkins lamented the infestation of koa trees by ants, which had driven out native beetles (p. 111). He also observed \u201cgreat herds of wild pigs,\u201d which \u201cmay sometimes be seen crossing the flats between the gulches\u201d (p. 111). On Lana`i, as he searched for the `akialoa, Perkins found \u201cthe clump of Clermontia bushes, on which I strongly suspected the Hemignathus had been got, had been gnawed by goats since my last visit and were dead or dying\u201d (p. 236).<\/p>\n \tPerkins was concerned about the effects of introduced species on native insects as well. He wrote Charles Reed Bishop, \u201cwith regard to the insects I may tell you that they are probably disappearing even quicker than the birds indeed the whole native insect fauna of the lower forests has entirely finished through an introduced ant\u201d (p. 239). Native insects could only be found above the elevation of the ants\u2019 incursion, he wrote, and \u201cit is obviously still working upwards until the forest gets dried up from the incursion & destruction of cattle goats sheep &c\u201d (p. 239).<\/p>\n \tAnd then there were the rats: \u201cI should think the rats which were eating up all the land shell creatures in some parts of Moloka`i in 1896 would have exterminated the rails!\u201d Perkins wrote to Munro (p. 321).<\/p>\n \tObviously, Perkins saw no connection between his own actions and extinctions, which he attributed to other causes: \u201cOf the insects of these Islands probably 1\/3 of the original fauna are extinct now & 20 years hence may clean out many of those left, as also of the birds,\u201d he wrote in a letter to Bishop. \u201cThe first four birds of O`ahu (got 40 years ago) are now utterly extinct & between the mongoose (which swarms there) cats & mynah birds, not to mention the wholesale clearing which is taking place for coffee planting, those on Hawai`i must follow before many years\u201d (p. 306).<\/p>\n \tYet it is worth noting that apart from the specimens taken by the professional naturalists, amateurs were also taking birds, insects, and shells by the thousands for their personal collections. While on Maui, Perkins encountered \u201ctwo young collectors who were traveling around the world. And paying their way by collecting birds or taking temporary jobs\u201d (p. 202).<\/p>\n \tLocal families as well developed huge collections. One of the largest was that of the family of R.W. Meyer of Moloka`i. Perkins mentions Meyer\u2019s sons’ collection of Drepanis funereal<\/i>, which stirred up some debate as to whether they should sell the skins or donate them to the Bishop Museum. (Meyer\u2019s collection was more recently in the news when, in 2002, Don Medcalf of Hawaiian Islands Stamp & Coin Co. was charged with violating the state\u2019s endangered species law when he attempted to sell 52 bird skins that once belonged to the Meyer family. The stuffed birds, Medcalf said, all dated back to the 1890s and among the dozen or so different species represented was, he said, the Bishop\u2019s `o`o, or D. funereal<\/i>. The charges against him were dropped when a judge ruled that the law applied to \u201cliving things,\u201d Medcalf said, \u201cnot to owning things more than a hundred years old.\u201d)<\/p>\n \tPerkins, his sponsors, and his colleagues were keenly aware of the decline of Hawai`i\u2019s native birds, but, if anything, this renewed their enthusiasm for the hunt. At no time do they seem to make a connection between dwindling numbers of live birds and the increasing numbers of bird skins being added to collections worldwide. So avid was the collecting, in fact, that institutions would barter with one another to round out their collections, or would even resort to selling duplicate specimens on the private market.<\/p>\n \tNo opprobrium attached to this. Perkins himself, apparently tiring of the life of a \tOn the same theme, a short while later, he writes: \u201cA good collector \u2026 can today easily clear a couple of thousand pounds a year\u2026 I have seen box after box of a single species of butterfly sold at Stevens auction room in Covent Garden at two to five pounds a single specimen\u2026 Probably I should make the whole lot up into typical collections as illustrating the fauna of the H.I. [Hawaiian Islands] & dispose of them on the continent & to private people\u201d (p. 358).<\/p>\n \tBy 1900, the rampant killing of birds and other wildlife across the country \u2013 by haberdashers, by collectors, by sportsmen \u2013 led to the passage of the Lacey Act, which \tOne of the most notorious incidents, in fact, occurred seven years after passage of the Lacey Act when William Alanson Bryan, later to become a director of the Bishop Museum, spotted a Drepanis funerea<\/i> in Moloka`i. In what was the last confirmed sighting ever made of the bird, Bryan saw three \u2013 and fired away. \u201cTo my joy I found the mangled remains hanging in the tree in a thick bunch of leaves, six feet or more beyond where it had been sitting,\u201d Bryan later wrote. \u201cIt was, as I feared, very badly mutilated. However, it was made into a very fair cabinet skin.\u201d<\/p>\n — Patricia Tummons<\/p>\n Volume 18, Number 4 October 2007<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Neal L. Evenhuis, editor. Barefoot on Lava: The Journals and Correspondence of Naturalist R.C.L. Perkins in Hawai`i, 1892-1901. Bishop Museum Press: Honolulu, 2007. 412 pages. Hardcover: $29.95. “I am off on Monday to Lana`i, there is an all but extinct … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[149],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-october-2007"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}This was on one of the two occasions when I stayed all night on the ridge, hoping that either towards evening or early in the morning birds might show up in greater numbers. That night there was a very heavy thunderstorm and much rain and I started to go still higher up the ridge as soon as it began to get light\u2026 On a very narrow part of the ridge a pair of green birds flew across in front of me one just behind and in pursuit of the other, which squeaked as it flew\u2026. I had no doubt at the time that this was the rare `Akialoa of O`ahu and when I shot, feathers were blown back towards me as the bird fell over the very steep side of the ridge\u2026 I spent hours in searching for this bird amongst the thick brush, but without success\u2026 On a number of days afterwards I hunted around Waolani, and once more I spent a night in the open on the ridge, but never again saw anything that could be mistaken for a Hemignathus.<\/ul>\n
\npoorly paid field worker, wrote to one of his sponsors: \u201cAfter this I may give up zoology, or if I continue it will be to go to S. America as a pure collector & collect special rarities in butterflies & birds for sale, without doing anything scientific in any way. My friend Koebele in California is very anxious to do this for 5 or 6 years, if we can stand it, there being much money in the business, if you collect the right things & let everything else alone\u201d (p. 341).<\/p>\n
\nprohibited the interstate commerce in wildlife. In 1913, poachers of albatross on Laysan Island were prosecuted under this act, after a protest was lodged by a zoology professor at the College of Honolulu. Until then, however, it was open season on Hawaiian birds, and collectors continued to kill rare birds with what can only be described as gusto.<\/p>\n