The Micronesian islands were first explored and colonized by a a people
who came from Malaysia. It is thought that these people spread into the
Palau, Caroline, Mariana, Marshall, and Gilbert islands as a single wave
of migration. Following this occupation, the people apparently underwent
a normal process of cultural evolution and differentiation. Remains of
stone walls, dikes, fences, pillars, graves, and other structures which
may be found today at various islands in Micronesia were constructed by
the ancestors of the islanders of the present day. It is thought by
archeologists that the Polynesians moved eastward into the Pacific
islands by way of Micronesia. The date of this wave of migration is
thought to have been approximately 1200 A. D. What kinds of birds may
have been exterminated by this earliest of human colonization cannot be
ascertained. Edible species, particularly megapodes, rails, and pigeons,
probably were eliminated or reduced in numbers, as is indicated by later
discussions.
The first Europeans to visit Micronesia, as far as the present writer
can ascertain, left no accounts of the birds significant for the study
here reported upon. Magellan, on his trip around the world, was the
leader of the first party of Europeans who touched at Guam; this was on
March 6, 1521. Rota, Agiguan, Saipan, and Tinian were also discovered by
this Portuguese sea captain in the service of the king of Spain. Eltano,
one of Magellan's lieutenants, revisited the Pacific and stopped at Rota
in 1524. After the voyage of Magellan, other seafarers, mostly in the
service of Spain, visited the Micronesian islands. The Caroline Islands
were apparently first observed by the Portuguese captain, Diego de
Rocha, in 1526. Loyasa and Saavdera, both Spaniards, visited the
Marshall Islands in 1526 and 1529, respectively.
One of the first travelers to record observations on the bird life was
Henry Wilson. Wilson was captain of the schooner "Antelope" which became
grounded on a reef in the Palau Islands in August, 1783. He lived with
the islanders while the ship was being repaired and kept a journal of
his observations (Wilson, 1788). Wilson also visited several other
islands in western Micronesia. Adelbert von Chamisso (1821), as
naturalist with the Russian expedition in the ship "Rurick," made
observations of the animal life in Micronesia in 1817 and 1818. Under
the command of Otto von Kotzebue, this Russian expedition made the first
detailed exploration of the Marshall Islands; visits were made also to
Guam and Rota and to Yap, Fais, Ulithi, Palau, and other island groups
in western Micronesia. Freycinet's famous expedition in the ships
"Uranie" and "Physicienne," visited Guam, Rota, and Tinian in 1819. Quoy
and Gaimard, the naturalists of the expedition, obtained birds, which
were among the first to be described from Micronesia. These two
naturalists revisited the Marianas in 1829 on board the ship
"Astrolabe." Scientific results of both of these expeditions (Quoy and
Gaimard, 1824-'26 and 1830-'35) include texts and plates dealing with
the birds obtained.
The French expedition in the corvette "La Coquille" visited Kusaie in
June, 1824. Lesson (1829) wrote the zoology of this trip. Kittlitz
(1836) of the expedition which sailed in the corvette "Le Seniavine"
commanded by Lutké obtained birds at Kusaie in December and January,
1827-'28, at Guam in March, 1828, and at Lukunor and other islands of
the Carolines. At Kusaie, Kittlitz found a rail (_Aphanolimnas monasa_)
and a starling (_Aplonis corvinus_) which have not been obtained since
his time. His specimens were deposited in St. Petersburg. He was one of
the most competent of the early naturalists; his writings contain
accounts of habits as well as descriptions and are accompanied by
colored plates. The expedition which sailed on the "Astrolabe" and the
"Zélée" in 1827-'40 under the command of Dumont d'Urville visited the
Caroline Islands. The naturalists, Hombron and Jacquinot, obtained birds
at Truk, including the interesting flycatcher, _Metabolus rugensis_,
which they described (1841). The "Novara," in the course of its voyage
around the world (1857-'59) visited the Caroline Islands in 1858. Birds
were recorded from Ponapé, Lukunor and other islands by Pelzeln in his
account of the birds of the expedition (1865).
In the years following the middle of the Nineteenth Century, Godeffroy
and Sons, of Hamburg, opened branches of its trading firm in Micronesia.
Representatives of the company including Heinsohn and Peters, who were
ship captains, obtained collections of birds at Palau and Yap. These
were deposited in the Godeffroy Museum at Hamburg and reported on by
Hartlaub and Finsch (Hartlaub, 1868; Hartlaub and Finsch, 1868a and
1872). Tetens became representative of Godeffroy and Sons at Yap in 1869
and obtained birds. Perhaps the most famous collector in this period was
Johann Kubary. He went to Ponapé at the age of nineteen and traveled in
Micronesia for many years for Godeffroy and Sons. He obtained birds at
many of the islands of the Carolines, spending fourteen months at Truk.
In 1873, one of his collections of some 200 birds was lost in a
shipwreck. Hartlaub and Finsch, (Hartlaub and Finsch, 1872; Finsch,
1876a) described much of his material; Nehrkorn (1879) reported on nests
and eggs which he obtained. Hartlaub and Finsch (1868b) also reported on
birds obtained at Palau by Doctor Semper, which were deposited in the
museum at Altona. Otto Finsch (1880b, 1880d, 1881b, 1881c) traveled in
Micronesia about 1880, observing birds in the eastern Carolines and in
the Marshalls.
One of the largest collections from Micronesia was made by Alfred Marche
in the Marianas. He arrived there on April 22, 1887, and stayed until
May, 1889. He obtained approximately 732 specimens of birds, nests, and
eggs at Guam, Rota, Tinian, Saipan, Pagan, and Alamagan, which were
deposited in the Paris Museum and reported on by Oustalet (1895-'96).
Shortly after Marche's visit, Japanese collectors in the hire of Alan
Owston, a professional collector of Yokahama, obtained birds in the
Marianas and at Truk in the years 1894-'97. These went to the Rothschild
collection at Tring and were reported on by Hartert in 1898 and 1900.
At the turn of the Twentieth Century, several ornithologists were
visiting Micronesia. Alvin Seale (1901) obtained a collection of birds
at Guam in the summer of 1900 which was deposited in the Bernice P.
Bishop Museum in Honolulu. The U. S. Fish Commission steamer "Albatross"
visited Micronesia from August, 1899, to March, 1900; birds obtained by
the expedition were reported on by Townsend and Wetmore (1919). Paul
Schnee (1901) spent approximately one year, 1899-1900, at Jaluit in the
Marshalls and obtained records of birds. In 1899, Brandeis, on board the
German ship "Kaiserland" visited many of the islands in the Marshalls
and recorded birds. William Safford (1905) resided at Guam in the early
part of this century and reported on the bird life in the course of his
studies of the botany and native life. Bartsch (Mearns, 1909) also
obtained a small collection of birds at Guam, this is in the United
States National Museum.
In the first World War when the Japanese gained a mandated control over
the islands of Micronesia, the Japanese ornithologists promptly visited
the area, obtained collections, and published works concerning the
birds. In 1922, Momiyama and Kuroda prepared a list of the birds of
Micronesia. The work was published under the auspices of the
Ornithological Society of Japan. Subsequent editions appeared in 1932
and 1942.
The Whitney South Sea Expedition of the American Museum of Natural
History visited Micronesia from October, 1930, to December, 1931, with
William F. Coultas as collector. Although experiencing some difficulty
and being restricted somewhat in his travels by the Japanese officials,
he managed to obtain collections at Ponapé (October 26, 1930, to January
1, 1931), Kusaie (January 15 to June 11, 1931), Guam (June 24 to August
30, 1931), Saipan and Tinian (September 1 to 26, 1931), and Palau
(October 2 to December, 1931). Many of the species which he obtained are
represented by large series of fine skins. Only part of his collections
have been reported on by Mayr and his associates.
Other than the work of Coultas and that of the Japanese, there was
little ornithological work done in the period between the two world
wars, probably, at least in part, because of the "iron curtain," which
Japan had thrown about her mandate. Bryan (1936) did visit Guam in the
middle 1930's and published an account of the birds in the newspaper,
Guam Recorder.
When the Micronesian islands were taken by the American forces in 1944,
personnel attached to various units made observations on the bird life.
The first reports, published or unpublished, were from the Marshalls,
which were taken at the beginning of the campaign. Gleise, Genelly,
Wallace, and others made contributions. In the Marianas considerably
more observing and collecting were done by service personnel including
Marshall, Stott, Borror, Strophlet, Buss, Watson, Arvey, Downs, and
others. Marshall (1949) obtained also a collection of birds in the
Palaus in 1945. The Laboratory of Mammalogy, United States Naval Medical
Research No. 2, to which I was attached, collected at Guam (January to
October, 1945), at Rota (October 17 to November 2, 1945), at Ulithi
(August 11 to 23, 1945), at Palau (August 24 to September 24, 1945), and
at Truk (November 24 to December 18, 1945). Following the end of the
war, Harvey I. Fisher visited Micronesia and obtained a collection of
birds at Yap, which is to be reported on in the near future. Larry P.
Richards obtained 33 birds at Ponapé and 4 at Truk in the period from
August 28, 1947, to February 10, 1948.
Descriptions of birds in Micronesia began with the naming of _Halcyon c.
cinnamomina_ in 1821; the most recent description is that of _Rhipidura
rufifrons mariae_ in 1946. In all, 131 descriptions have designated type
localities in Micronesia. Table 1 lists the dates (on the basis of
ten-year intervals) when names of birds (synonyms or otherwise) were
proposed. In the period from 1821 to 1860, twenty-five birds were made
known to science by the earliest workers, including Kittlitz, Lesson,
Bonaparte, and Pelzeln. In the period from 1861 to 1880, thirty-four
birds were newly named, mostly by Hartlaub and Finsch, from the
collections which the Godeffroy Museum obtained through the efforts of
Kubary, Tetens, Peters, and Heinsohn. Nineteen original descriptions
were published from 1881 to 1900, principally by Oustalet and Hartert,
who studied the material of Marche and Owston, respectively. From 1901
to 1910, only four birds were described, but from 1911 to 1940,
forty-seven descriptions were published, mostly by the Japanese
following World War I. From 1931 to 1940, the number of known birds was
increased by the efforts of Mayr, who studied the material of the
Whitney South Sea Expedition. From 1941 to date only two original
descriptions have appeared--only one was postwar. Except for possible
undescribed subspecies in the northern Marianas, I think that the heyday
of the taxonomist in ornithology in Micronesia is over. The field of
avian ecology in Micronesia has barely been scratched.
TABLE 1. COMPILATION OF THE DATES (ON THE BASIS OF TEN-YEAR INTERVALS)
WHEN ORIGINAL DESCRIPTIONS OF BIRDS OF MICRONESIA APPEARED.
============+==============+============+==============
| No. of | | No. of
YEARS | descriptions | YEARS | descriptions
------------+--------------+------------+--------------
1821-1830 | 8 | 1881-1890 | 9
1831-1840 | 8 | 1891-1900 | 10
1841-1850 | 4 | 1901-1910 | 4
1851-1860 | 5 | 1911-1920 | 10
1861-1870 | 11 | 1921-1930 | 15
1871-1880 | 23 | 1931-1940 | 22
| 1941-1949 | 2
------------+--------------+------------+--------------