Читать книгу A Manual of Philippine Birds - Richard C. McGregor - Страница 6
ОглавлениеPREFACE.
During several years spent in collecting zoölogical specimens in the Philippine Islands the author has constantly experienced the need of a book containing descriptions of the Philippine birds. That others have felt the same want is evident from the many requests for literature received. Lists of Philippine birds1 have been published from time to time but they contain no descriptions and are of use to those only who have a considerable library at hand.
The Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum contains descriptions of most of the known species of birds and these include very many of the Philippine species but the bulk of its 27 volumes would preclude the use of this work in the field even if its rarity and cost were not prohibitory. Thus there is an almost total lack of adequate means for identifying Philippine birds which has been a serious check to activity and interest in ornithological work throughout the Islands.
To meet this need and to place descriptions of the birds inhabiting the Philippines in a convenient form for the use of local naturalists the present work has been prepared. Technical terms and references to internal structure have been avoided as far as possible although this method weakens, to some extent, the keys and diagnoses of the higher groups. The diagnoses of orders, families, and genera being drawn from Philippine species may or may not define these groups as represented outside of the Archipelago.
The actual material which has been available for study consists of about 8,000 specimens of birds collected for the Bureau of Science, a few skins received in exchange from the Menage Collection, nearly 200 skins received from the United States National Museum, part in exchange and part as a loan, and a few small lots of skins from various sources. There are, however, some 150 species inhabiting the Philippines of which not a single specimen has been examined. Of some other species the available material is quite inadequate for complete descriptions; this is particularly true of the shore and water birds, most of which visit the Philippine Islands as migrants and can not be obtained here in breeding plumage.
To meet these deficiencies a large number of descriptions have been taken from previous works, notably the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum, Oates’s Birds of British Burmah, and the four volumes on birds in the Fauna of British India, while a few have been taken from periodicals. All copied descriptions and parts of descriptions are inclosed in quotation marks followed by the authors’ names; the exact reference in each case will be found in the synonymy of the species described.
The quotations ending with “Bourns and Worcester MS.” are taken from a manuscript prepared by Messrs. Frank S. Bourns and Dean C. Worcester and based upon the ornithological specimens collected by the Menage Expedition. This manuscript was intended for publication by the Minnesota Academy of Natural Sciences, but as that institution was unable to meet the necessary expense, the right to use the manuscript reverted to the authors who have permitted the publication of their notes in this Manual.
The scientific name, an English name, and such native names as seem to be commonly used with some degree of accuracy are given for each species.
The synonymy consists of references to original descriptions and to all works from which quotations are made; also to the following works when the species is given in them: Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum, Sharpe’s Hand-List of the Genera and Species of Birds, Oates and Reid’s Catalogue of Birds’ Eggs in the British Museum, and McGregor and Worcester’s Hand-List of Philippine Birds; other references are to plates or figures, records of rare species, important descriptions, notes on habits, or critical remarks.2
The distribution of each species is given by islands, arranged alphabetically, with the names of collectors so far as these have been worked out from the available literature. Distribution outside of the Philippine Islands is given in a general way only.
To the descriptions and measurements of the birds are added notes on habits, nests and eggs, abundance, etc. and in very many cases manuscript notes by Bourns and Worcester, giving information on habits, colors of soft parts, measurements, and validity of species.
All measurements are in the metric system. In copied descriptions inches and hundredths have been carefully reduced to millimeters and the English measurements omitted, tenths and hundredths of millimeters being disregarded in most instances.
In accordance with Canon XXXVII of the Code of Nomenclature adopted by the American Ornithologists’ Union, Revised Edition (1908), generic and specific names, unless evidently misprinted, are spelled as in the original descriptions. Dr. Charles W. Richmond, Assistant Curator, Division of Birds, United States National Museum, has most kindly verified a very large number of these citations.
The last half century has been exceedingly fruitful in systems of classification, some of them excellent, most of them suggestive and helpful. The whole subject has been reviewed in a masterly way by Newton, Dictionary of Birds, London (1896), 45–120 of introduction.
The present author has not the ability to judge of the relative merits of the schemes of classification proposed by various authors but the system set forth in Sharpe’s Hand-List3 and copied in McGregor and Worcester’s Hand-List of Philippine Birds is followed as being both convenient and well known.
1 The most important of these lists are the following:
Martens, E. V.: [Title not seen] Jour. für Ornith. (1866), 8–31.
Walden, Viscount: A List of Birds Known to Inhabit the Philippine Archipelago. Trans. Zool. Soc. London (1875), 9, pt. 2, 125–252, pls. 23–34.
Ramsay, R. G. W.: Revised List of the Birds Known to Occur in the Philippine Islands, Showing their Geographical Distribution. Appendix, pp. 653–660, to the Ornithological Works of Arthur, Ninth Marquis of Tweeddale. London (1881).
Elera, R. P. Fr. Casto de: Aves. Catalogo Sistematico de toda la Fauna de Filipinas. Manila (1895), 1, 52–398.
Worcester, D. C. and Bourns, F. S.: A List of the Birds Known to Inhabit the Philippine and Palawan Islands, Showing their Distribution within the Limits of the Two Groups. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. Washington (1898), 20, 549–566.
McGregor, R. C. and Worcester, D. C.: A Hand-List of the Birds of the Philippine Islands. Bur. Govt. Labs. Manila (1906), No. 36, 1–121.
2 Very full references to literature may be found in Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum and in Catalogue of the Collection of Birds’ Eggs in the British Museum (Natural History). ↑
3 Sharpe, R. B.: A Hand-List of the Genera and Species of Birds. London (1899–1903), 1–4, Vol. 5 in press.
For other systems of classification the following may be consulted:
Huxley, T. H.: On the Classification of Birds; and on the Taxonomic Value of the Modifications of Certain of the Cranial Bones observable in that Class. Proc. Zool. Soc. London (1867), 415–472.
Stejneger, L.: Standard Natural History. Boston (1885), 4, Birds (part). An outline of Stejneger’s scheme of classification may be found in the Zoological Record (1885), 22, pt. Aves. 14–18.
Fürbringer, M.: Untersuchungen zur Morphologie und Systematik der Vogel, Zugleich ein Beitrage zur Anatomie der Stütz- und Bewegungsorgane. Royal Zoological Society, Amsterdam (1888). For reviews of Fürbringer’s classification see Gadow, Nature (1888), 39, 150–152; 177–181, and Evans, Zool. Record, Aves (1888), 25, 14–16.
Evans, A. H.: Cambridge Natural History, Birds. New York and London (1900), 9, XI–XVI (Scheme of Classification).
Gadow, H.: On the Classification of Birds. Proc. Zool. Soc. London (1892), 229–256.
Dubois, A.: Synopsis Avium. Brussels (1899–1904), 1–1339, pls. 1–16.
Ridgway, R.: The Birds of North and Middle America. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. Washington (1901), No. 50, pt. 1, 1–12.
Clark, H. L.: The Classification of Birds. Auk (1901), new ser., 18, 370–381.
Shufeldt, R. W.: An Arrangement of the Families and Higher Groups of Birds. Am. Naturalist (1904), 38, 833–857.
USE OF THE KEYS.
A key is a short cut used to approximate identification without reading a great number of descriptions. The keys given here differ in no essential particular from those to be found in other systematic works on ornithology, but for the benefit of the beginner their use may be briefly explained.
Having in hand an unknown bird begin with the key to the Orders (p. 7), reading first the line beginning a1; if the specimen has the characters given after a1 then the bird belongs to the Order Pelecaniformes and another key is to be used which will be found under that order, (p. 200). If the characters on the line after a1 are not found in the specimen, then those given on the line a2 are to be examined and these the specimen must have, if no mistake has been made. The next choice is between b1 and b2 and so on until characters are found which agree with those of the specimen and at the same time lead to a word at the right printed in heavy face type; this is the name of the order to which the specimen belongs.
Having determined the order turn to the page where the order begins and use the key there which leads to the suborders or to the families, then find and use the keys to genera and species.
To illustrate the use of keys with a concrete example, suppose that we have a specimen of the common spoon-billed duck or shoveler, but know nothing of its affinities. Beginning with the key to orders we find:
“a1. Hind toe connected by a web to the inner toe.” As this does not agree with our specimen we try:
“a2. Hind toe not connected by a web to the inner toe.” Yes.“b1. Nostrils tubular.” No.“b2. Nostrils not tubular.” Yes.“c1. Cutting edges of bill more or less distinctly fringed or serrated, tip of bill rounded Anseriformes.”
Yes, and our bird belongs in the order Anseriformes. By a similar procedure we find that our duck belongs in the subfamily Anatinæ (p. 185) and in the key to genera (p. 187) we find:
“a1. Bill not spatulate.”
“a2. Bill flattened, and spatulate Spatula.”
As our duck has a flattened, spatulate bill we turn to the genus Spatula (p. 196) and as there is but one Philippine species in this genus we know that our bird is—
Spatula clypeata (Linnæus).
SHOVELER.
