Brief Book Reviews

Through the course of doing research for illustrations, I have had the opportunity to study a large number of ‘collected’ specimens (skins of birds) kept in museums, and whilst doing so carefully check the labels. The names found, and sometimes the labels and writing themselves, are evocations of those who collected them and how they were collected. This book chronicles the exploits of many of the early collectors of specimens. It takes a non-condemnatory style, instead putting the facts forward in a readable and fascinating way.

Through my research, and no doubt many others who have examined skins in museums, I have come across certain names that crop up time and again: Meinertzhagen, the skins always beautifully prepared – confronted by a tray of varying quality the best are nearly always his; Hume – famous for warblers named after him; Seebohm – of Palearctic and China fame. Most recently it has been Styan, a specialist in Chinese species, with Styan’s Grasshopper Warbler named after him; Whistler, collections of Indian birds; La Touche, who spent more than 40 years in China, primarily around Foochow, Fukien and Swatow. As I go through the skins, the labels and species give a sense of history, of times of travel and exploration, and (being rather pretentious) act as a reminder that even in death they live on.

The book under review, The Bird Collectors, by Barbara and Richard Mearns, serves to give life to some of the bird collectors. As I read the sections about Styan and La Touche other names are brought into the equation and into life. Captain John Blakiston, of whom I have heard through the sub-species of Water Pipit Anthus spinoletta blakistoni and Blakiston’s Fish Owl, can be taken as an example.

We learn that having made a name for himself as an ornithologist in the Crimea and Canada, Blakiston was lured by financial prospects to the Japanese Empire - Nagasaki, Yokohama and Hakodate. After journeying up the Yangste for five months in 1861, Blakiston eventually set up an open house on Hokkaido for scientists and studied in detail the birds of the island. He discovered that the birdlife of Hokkaido was essentially Siberian in character, compared with that of neighbouring Honshu. The biogeographical line that runs through the Tsuagaru Straits was named as Blakiston’s Line.

‘The skins that Balkiston sent to England were used as the basis for a series of papers by Robert Swinhoe and Henry Seebohm. By 1878, when Blakiston and Pryer published their General Catalogue of the Japanese Birds in The Ibis the number of Japanese bird species had risen to 295, with forty-six added by Blakiston, about forty-four by Blakiston and Pryer, and seventeen by John Cassin of Philadelphia who wrote up the collection brought back by Perry’s expedition.’

The thorough research and knowledge contained in the book throws up more names and more paths to follow. There many chapters on ‘Bird Artists as Collectors’, ‘Early Scientific Voyages’, ‘Professional Field Collectors’, ‘Clergymen and Missionaries’, ‘Women in the Field’, all rich in the fascinating history of early ornithology.

Sometimes the nature of the book leaves you wanting more, for example the section on Meinertzhagen only scratches the surface of the story behind the man – and only hints at the controversy behind his collecting. However, this is only a minor point and in some way is beyond the scope of this book. Anyone with an interest in birds, with the history of ornithology, with the balance between science and the modern-day popularisation of birding should get a copy of this book, read it, delve into it, and enjoy the content and style of writing.

Brian J Small

UK Birders click here for more details on this book from Amazon.co.uk