What Price Natural History Collections, or 'Why do we need all these bloody mice?' by Charles Pettitt, Manchester Museum [publ. 1991 in Mus. Journal 91 (8): 25-28]



The Under-valuation of Natural History Collections

'Why do we need all these bloody mice?' is a question once asked by the leader of a large local authority on a visit to the research collections of a major museum. In many ways this sums up the attitude of most politicians. The attitude of the public, on the other hand, is encapsulated in the words of a car sticker, 'Preserve wild life - Pickle a squirrel', which surely indicates that the public mistakenly view natural history museums as places haunted by necrophiliacs interested only in dead material. Even some naturalists nowadays fail to recognise the relevance of museum natural history collections.

The use to society of natural history collections is enormous, but too often their value is poorly understood by the public and by politicians. The gradual loss of interest in the world of nature by the scientific community and the public during the first part of this century has progressively downgraded the resources devoted to natural history in museums. Nowadays museum funding for natural history is significantly lower than that for the arts; even fairly insignificant art objects are far more cossetted than any natural history specimen ever is. So why does society considers spending several million pounds for a painting a public benefit, while a few thousand pounds to maintain a natural history collection is seen as a drain on the public purse? Too often people say of large collections 'but what good are they if we can't see them?'; these people fail to understand the enormous value large research collections have as objective data banks with an irreplaceable historical dimension.



The Value of Natural History Collections



We do need those bloody mice! Natural history collections still have a major role to play in many aspects of life today. Studying an outstanding painting or some fine porcelain may convince you that the species that can produce such beauty should be preserved, but it will not help one jot towards combating disease, environmental pollution, or the 'greenhouse effect'. Natural history collections can and do contribute significantly to these and other scientific studies vital to human society and to life on planet Earth.

Art objects tend to have high market values, which most natural history objects at present do not, although the Moa egg recently broken in a Tasmanian museum was valued at £600,000, a respectable figure even compared with current art object auction prices. If, however, one considers the cost of attempting to replace a natural history collection, then its monetary value would generally be astronomical.

Natural history curators are beginning to regard their collections as a unified whole - one collection with many homes. This approach is being fostered in the U.K. by the work of the Federation for Natural Sciences Collections Research [FENSCORE], aided by the increasing computerisation of collection data, and by the establishment of regional collecting policies by groups of curators. However, the full benefits to society of these efforts will be long delayed unless more funding is directed to natural history collection care.

The Biology Curators Group (BCG) is presently campaigning to raise awareness of the importance of the great national resource that the natural history collections in British institutions represent - a resource the vast extent of which is only now becoming apparent through the work of FENSCORE. A comment in the 1989 OAL report The cost of collecting: 'Analysis of the intellectual, social and economic benefits of museum collections must await another study, perhaps a companion study to this one' reveals the need to address the true value of these collections. Later, the report briefly assesses the value of (all) collections entirely in economic terms such as 'turnover of museums and galleries was estimated at £230m in 1985/86 with a value added of £141m' - which makes it sound as if we are running a chain of hamburger bars.



An international asset



Science knows no boundaries; collections are not national possessions but assets of the entire scientific world. The UK holds a significant percentage of the types from other countries, particularly the ex-colonies. In addition those countries rely on us for access to material collected during times past, and we as a nation owe a duty to those countries to treat their material professionally. To discharge this duty we must curate the collections adequately, publicise them and allow efficient access to them. Access includes loaning material. Although the long-standing under-funding of museum natural history has made adequate curation and publicity difficult, a hugh number of international loans of natural history material for research are already made from Britain. However, it is unacceptable that according to Biological Collections UK 300,000 foreign specimens held in Britain are not available for loan, mainly because of financial stringency.





USE OF NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN RESEARCH





Underpinning taxonomy

.

Taxonomy is Mankind's oldest profession; it is the alpha and the omega of biological science, from the first naming of newly discovered variation, to the incorporation of all knowledge into a system. Unfortunately taxonomy is so fundamental it often escapes notice or is even disparaged. Not long ago a university vice-chancellor (a biologist himself) pronounced: 'Taxonomy has had its day; hard number biology is what is needed now.' It is dangerous to accept dismissive statements about any branch of science. Taxonomy is not stale or worked out; time and again it has been revitalised: by new data from genetics and chemotaxonomy, new concepts of mathematical analysis such as numerical and multivariate analysis, and by cladistics and molecular biology, to mention only some recent developments.

Non-biologists and administrators often fail to appreciate the necessity for obtaining accurate identification of biological material, or the difficulties of so doing without access to good reference collections. The strange fact is that, even as the demand for assistance with identifications threatens to submerge those able to provide the service, research funders still regard taxonomic work with a jaundiced eye. Ironically, a few weeks after making his pronouncement the vice-chancellor mentioned above appeared in his university's herbarium clutching a handful of leaves from shrubs in the garden of his residence, asking for identification.

The attitudes 'we've done that bit' and 'we have all the identification keys we need, thanks' are prevalent. However, keys can mislead: 'it is not A or B so it must be C' is usually how they are used; but this presupposes that all the possible species are in the key, while 'it' might actually be species D! It is important always to confirm identification against a reputable reference collection. More than one PhD student has faced a massive rewrite of their thesis after belatedly identifying correctly the organism studied using a museum reference collection.



Environmental Studies



Many studies in the fields of ecology, evolution, pollution and climatic changes require museum specimens. Provided selective collecting is allowed for, museum collections are logical places for life history studies. Using existing collections for such studies often enables large amounts of data to be accumulated in a short time on such things as fecundity/mortality patterns, host-parasite relationships, estimates of breeding seasons, micro-growth increments (many organisms show growth layers when sectioned, such as the 'rings' of a tree, and these can be used to study past environmental conditions), food pests, life-cycle duration, larval growth pattern, migration (museum collections have been used to locate locust outbreak sites and to track traditional migration patterns), species that mimic other animals, and other polymorphisms, plant fecundity, flowering and fruiting dates, periods of dormancy, and correlations of plant growing sites with rainfall or altitude. Systematics collections provide a wealth of historical information on habitat composition, and on the distribution of plants and animals, that is invaluable to those predicting ecological shifts due to global climate change. For plants particularly, herbarium specimens, accumulated over the past 200 years, remain the most readily available source of information on structural variation and geographical distribution.



Nature Conservation



The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) understandably discourages the use of bird mounts in public displays. One museum which put on a display to celebrate the recent centenary of the RSPB readily agreed to use a model of an Avocet prepared by an RSPB recommended modeller, in place of a mount; a short time later the modeller 'phoned the museum to request the loan of a mounted Avocet to enable him to make an accurate model. Often it is only by studying bird mounts and eggs from museum collections that artists are able to paint the colour plates in the plethora of bird identification guides used by bird lovers; such artists still account for a large number of loans from the major bird collections.

The mapping of distribution patterns of birds, animals, plants and so on, essential to protect the environment, and for the adequate assessment of planning applications, also needs natural history collections; maps of rare and critical species can be reliably prepared only from museum (voucher) specimens. Reliable maps of common species need voucher specimens - particularly for islands. Many erroneous records are found, made by distinguished visitors who record what they expect to see rather than what is there. Vouchers are especially important for introduced species or those from limited habitats, and for ecological surveys. Unfortunately some important recent publications on local authority nature conservation have failed to remark the importance of voucher specimens and reference collections, and have totally ignored the wealth of dedicated nature conservation expertise in local authority museums, and the biological recording initiatives currently active in those museums in practically every county. However, English Nature's recent major report on nature conservation states: 'some provincial museums and universities ... collections also continue to be an important source of reference and data supporting survey and other research'. Two large, and expensive, surveys, one for river valley authority in America and one for an oil company, failed to preserve voucher material in a permanent collection. Both surveys were carried out by recent graduates with little taxonomic experience, and their findings have since been successfully challenged; without the voucher material these surveys were largely a waste of money. But accessioning and maintaining voucher collections costs money, and, as is now generally the case in America, such costs should be built into survey funding .



Biochemistry and the historical dimension



Objects can contain undiscovered or potential information, the need for which may not yet even have arisen. Natural history collections should be regarded as 'scientific data in waiting'. After nuclear devices were tested in the Pacific, there was much concern about radioactive contamination of the environment, especially of resident plants and animals. But how could anyone guess what were the levels in these organisms before the tests? Specimens in collections provided the answer. Other researchers needed dated samples of earth for heavy metal analysis; the only source they could find was the earth adhering to herbarium specimens. The effect of pesticides such as DDT on the thickness of the shells of eggs of birds of prey was only shown because of the existence of well-documented egg collections. With new techniques the DNA of long-dead specimens can be sequenced, such as that from the Quagga (an extinct horse), from Mammoth remains, and the DNA from a 20 million-year old magnolia leaf. The chemistry of feathers has shown past levels of environmental mercury, and can also establish the probable origins of bird specimens. Current concern with tri-butyl tin antifouling paint on boats required pre-1950 samples of the dogwhelk to study the long-term effects. Research at Manchester Museum has shown that the shell of the common winkle can be used to establish an accurate measure of some critical levels of radioactivity in coastal waters. The work required dated and localised winkle shells from the past 50 years to establish historical levels; these shells were provided from museum collections in the region.

The broad aspects of the study of evolution depend upon carefully assembled scientific collections for data, comparative analysis, and verification. Classified museum specimens are essential for studying the relationship between different groups of animals, variation within a single species and between the sexes, variation with climate, latitude, and with isolation on islands, character displacement, niche-variation hypotheses, and predator-prey relationships. This last involves identifying dismembered and partly digested stomach contents, which cannot easily be done without reference collections to compare the remains with.

The study of museum specimens can suggest hypotheses which are later tested by field observation, for example, crest and facial markings of Stellar's Jays suggested an hypothesis about communication which was then tested and proved in the field. Alternatively field observations often need museum specimen follow up, for example, the elucidation of sonic communication in baleen whales required a study of the anatomy of their larynx using museum specimens. Other studies include Felidae (cat family) skulls used to study brain evolution in carnivores; mounted mammals used for identifying casts of footprints from game and nature reserves; a host-parasite study using follicle-mites from pocket mouse specimens; estimating litter-sizes from nipple number in small marsupials.

Archaeology and Ethnology



Identification of bone, shell and insect fragments from archaeological burials and excavations, to assist the correct interpretation of the site. Ethnologists also require bits and pieces of feather, fur, skin, bone, shells and botanical material such as gourds identified in human artifacts. These identifications would be impossible without extensive reference collections.



Historical studies



Collections can yield information of importance in historical studies. The collecting data attached to specimens collected during expeditions and campaigns has assisted in fixing other historical events in sequence. The history of anatomical preservation, and of taxidermy, can only be studied using museum specimens.





USE OF NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS BY SOCIETY





Education



The museum's medium is the object; the object is the museum's message (pace McLuhan). Museum exhibits, lectures and publications in natural history are popular, and fortunately they are also widely regarded as contributions to society valuable enough to justify the costs of museums. Unfortunately the delivery system (galleries and catalogues) attracts most of the support, while the creative source of the goods delivered (curatorial research) receives small encouragement. But without research only a partial and inaccurate interpretation of the specimens is possible. Nowadays most museums fulfil the education role with reasonable success; ecological displays help explain the diversity of the life forms that sustain us, show the major patterns of geographic dispersal, and demonstrate the interrelationships between organisms. Natural history specimens are used for school loan services, and provide a range of specimens for identification in biology examinations at all levels. A numeracy centre used shells borrowed from a museum to illustrate to disadvantaged adults how the mathematics of spirals occur in nature. The tent markings on venerid bivalves and olive and volute shells have been used in an artificial intelligence study.



Law Enforcement



'Aiding the police in their enquiries', museum reference collections can identify hair as human or non-human, can tell the age and race of an unearthed human skull, accurately identify hairs as evidence in prosecutions over badger hunting, and identify pollen grains or grass fragments for 'scene of crime' forensics, all of which can only be done with the authority of a reference collection. Collections also help customs officers keep our green and pleasant land unsullied by illegal animal and plant imports: powdered keratin from rhino horn, horn or ivory objects, or pelts and leathers - often as made up goods. Sometimes only a tuft of feather or hair, or a small piece of skin is available, and without considerable expertise backed by extensive reference collections the task of positive identification would be impossible. The public is usually quite unaware of this activity. Without it, the legislators could legislate about the control of export or import of animals and plants until they were blue in the face - but to little effect.



Medicine and Health



Another success story for natural history collections: environmental health officers with their mangled, cooked or partially digested animal remains - a snail in a can of peas, a slug in raspberry jam, or the cat bones in a tandoori curry - all need careful identification plus expert opinion upon where the 'foreign body' entered the process, often with legal proceedings pending; usually such identifications can only be done using reference collections. These officers also rely heavily on their local museums for help identifying infestations. A large reference collection is needed to assist the rapid identification of accidentally ingested toxic plant material, to enable the medical team involved to apply the appropriate, sometimes life-saving, treatment.

A dental professor, studying cleft palate in humans, made considerable use of crocodile skulls. Another dental researcher used samples from the legs of dated water bird specimens in studying historical levels of fluoride. Near-Eastern hamster specimens were used in a medical study on toxoplasmosis. In America mammal collections have yielded information on Chaga's disease and haemorrhagic fever. The control of other diseases - bilharzia, bubonic plague, schistosomiasis, malaria and river blindness - all depend on very precise identification of the animals transmitting the disease, using reference collections. Psychiatrists regularly use specimens of birds, bees, butterflies, small mammals and so on from museums for the treatment of phobias; by controlled gradual increased exposure to the specimens, patients learn to control their irrational fear of the living animals.



Commerce



Advertising agencies and television companies borrow material for use in the background of 'shots',and, as mentioned above, most of the highly popular colour-plate nature books are almost entirely illustrated using museum specimens. Another unusual commercial use of the biological collection was illustrated by the college of textiles students who used shells as inspiration for designing a cloth, which won a prize. Then there were the industrial design students who used armadillo skeletons as the inspiration for 'comfort chairs', and the top yacht designer who spent much time studying tunnyfish specimens as an aid to designing faster yachts. The next generation of airliners will have less drag because the designers studied preserved shark skin, and have copied the surface structure that makes the shark such an efficient swimmer. A lecturer in a university engineering department routinely instructs students who need to solve a novel engineering problem to go and find an animal which has already solved it; the museum collection often provides the answer. Isambard Kingdom Brunel is said to have gained inspiration for designing the tunnelling shield from examining museum specimens of the shipworm Teredo. Following planes hitting birds, airlines have required feather fragments from aeroengines identified by museums to determine the species responsible. Herbarium specimens are used in researching new fragrances, and in the search for new drugs.



Agriculture and Fisheries



Crop pests can be studied in part by examining pest-damaged material in herbaria (galls, etc); potential control organisms for weeds can be identified by studying 'habitat' details of insects as recorded on museum labels. The prickly pear invasion in Australia was successfully controlled following a study of this kind. Insect pests, and suspicious weeds and seeds, all need the collection for reliable identification. Otolith (ear-stone) collections give information on the historical age distribution of populations of fish and whales, and the results can demonstrate whether the stocks are declining.



Acknowledgement



Every point made in this article is backed by a published reference or personal knowledge; over 150 relevant papers and reports, all published in the last fifteen years, have been abstracted while preparing the article, and much useful information has been provided by colleagues in the Biology Curators Group. Space precludes individual acknowledgment, but I thank all those upon whose work and knowledge I have drawn. Glossary Character displacement: a process of gradual change which can lead to divergence of shape between two closely related species living in the same area but occupying different niches (q.v.) Chemotaxonomy: using DNA studies to assist taxonomic (q.v.) classification of plants and animals. Cladistics: A system of logic used for assessing the relationships of animals and plants. Cytotaxonomy: using chromosome studies to assist taxonomic (q.v.) classification of plants and animals. Ecological survey: a survey of the plants and animals occuring in a defined area, to determine the biological nature and importance of the site. Entomology: The study of insects. Key: A sequential list of comparisons intended to allow the identity of a plant or animal to be determined. Keys are generally restricted to a given area; a key to the marine shells of Norway would give erroneous results if used in the Mediterranean. Multi-variate analysis: Computer analysis of many different measurements at once allowing a group of animals or plants to be divided into sub-groups on a statistical basis, thus helping to establish the taxonomy (q.v.) of the group. Niche: The place of an animal in its environment, its relation to food and enemies, and to physical factors such as heat, light or moisture. Polymorphisms: Different forms of the same species, such as the Peppered moth with a light coloured form predominating in the country, and a dark form predominating in smoke-blackened cities. Taxonomy: The systematic distinguishing, ordering and naming of plants and animals according to their natural relationships. Toxoplasmosis: A disease of the central nervous system, especially in infants, caused by parasitic micro-organism Toxoplasma. Type: The specimen from which an author originally described a species of plant or animal. Charles Pettitt is Keeper of Invertebrate Zoology at Manchester University Museum. He is vice-chairman of FENSCORE, and a member of the MGC expert group on standards of care for biological collections.





Taxidermy in Victorian England: The “Bone Articulators�



by Steven Ripley “Taxidermy� is Such a Funny Word!



The word “taxidermy� has its roots in Greek, and it means “to arrange skin� (Historical Review of Taxidermy 1). The text from which I found most of my material (A Historical Review of Taxidermy) stated that taxidermy could have meant many things in ancient times, such as preserving mummies, or even leather working (arranging of animal skins) but by the time it reached England it was known quite solely as the arrangement of animal skins to represent life (1).

A Compressed History

Taxidermy was then not the art that we know today. In its earliest days (18th century) birds were especially difficult to reproduce. After the long and tedious procedures, specimens were often unrecognizable. This changed with the ideas of a Frenchman named Becoeur (1718-1777). He was the first man to use a paste containing arsenic to preserve bird skins and his methods reaped amazing results. You could actually tell that the specimens were birds. Becoeur never published his recipe during his life so that he might protect his business, but in 1820 a French taxidermist named Louis Dufresne (1752-1832) did. This was a landmark in the history of taxidermy, for it allowed many people to be able to create life-like specimens very similar to Becoeur‘s (3).

The British read Dufresne’s books, and thus much of their taxidermy mimicked the French styles for a time. However, new styles and methods of preservation began to appear, such as the non-poisonous preservative formulae developed by Rowland Ward (1848-1912) and Montague Brown (1837-1923) in the mid to late 19 th century (4).

For the first half of the 19 th century, taxidermy was still trying to become established. The difficulty owed much to the fact that the art was still being perfected. Most specimens from this period were rather stiff and un-lifelike in appearance. The idea of creativity combined with taxidermy had not yet taken flight, but this changed with the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. This show exhibited some of the first “creative� “taxidermical� (coined by me) works of art; the particular works created by John Hancock of Newcastle especially grabbed the attention of the judges. Hancock’s works, such as his tableaux of a falcon grappling with a heron, were “ unsurpassed at the time for their quality and realism� (5). A judge commented that they “... will go far towards raising the art of taxidermy to a level with other arts which have hitherto held higher pretensions� (5).

Taxidermists began to flesh out their own styles, so much that even the wooden cases became highly definable; a certain taxidermist could often be recognized simply by his casing. Birds, mammals and fish were generally placed in glass cases in recreations of the habitat in which they were taken from. In general, the front and sides of the case were glass, although some had glass surrounding the entire case. Sometimes a watercolor painting would be created as a backdrop for the animal (8).

Anthropomorphic Taxidermy and other Oddness

After the 1851 Great Exhibition came the style known as anthropomorphic taxidermy, which means the representation of animals performing human activities. This includes a very famous reenactment of the Death and Burial of Cock Robin, the first work of the famous taxidermist Walter potter. It included 98 different specimens of birds, from the sparrow with his bow and arrow, and the owl who performed the burial. Much of this style can be attributed to the works of Potter. While he was not the first man to create such tableaus, he was definitely the most well known. Until recently, many of Potter’s works were on display to the public first in a museum in England, and then (after an auction) a place called Jamaica Inn. Very few of the works still remain in England, and recently another auction was held at the Jamaica Inn. All of the works were sold to private collections.

Taxidermy in Victorian Life

Victorians were quite enraptured with taxidermy; it became a quite popular hobby of many people to collect different types of animals and form their own collections. Tropical birds were exceedingly popular in Victorian homes (8). Queen Victoria was an avid collector of birds, and sported a large collection in her own home (Bee 5)

Having pets “resurrected� was another aspect of Victorian taxidermy; something still occasionally demanded of taxidermists today. Rowland Ward wrote (in 1912): “Today the preservation, in one form or another, of departed pets, is as popular as it ever was, and it is little to be wondered at that it should be so. An animal that has been a faithful friend and companion to man during its lifetime, may in this way claim a fuller recompense in death than mere burial and subsequent oblivion� (12).

Did You Know?

Charles Darwin (after leaving school) became skilled as a taxidermist.

Queen Victoria kept her own collection of stuffed birds (Bee).

Many Victorians had their pets stuffed or mounted and hung on their walls .

Victorians often stuffed “freaks of nature�: deformed animals, namely.

Anthropomorphic taxidermy has been attributed to Victorians’ repressed sex drive.

Beatrix Potter was writing her stories around the time that Walter Potter was making his “art.� Is there a connection between the writing and the taxidermy?

The oldest surviving example of bird taxidermy, so far as is known, is the Duchess of Richmond's African Grey Parrot (which can be seen in Westminster Abbey, London). The bird died soon after its mistress in 1702 and X-rays show that it was preserved by the primitive methods described in the eighteenth century. It was never fully skinned and the skull, tongue and trachea are still intact, along with the entire skeleton. Its survival must be due largely to the conditions within the Abbey, which are unsuited to insects. Few specimens prepared before the 1790s are still extant� (4).

Works Cited

“Dr. Hugh’s Pastime: The Dark Side of Victorian Taxidermy.� Heliograph Designs. 13 March 2005.

Bee, Shira. “Memento Mori Animalia.� Morbid Outlook. 13 March 2005

“A Historical Review of Taxidermy.� Victorian Taxidermy Company Limited. 7 March 2005.

“Charles Darwin and the Victorian Crisis of Faith.� University of Bradford Online. 13 March 2005.

“Walter Potter of Bramber West Sussex.� Taxiderm4cash.com. 13 March 2005

“The Great Exhibition of 1851.� Taxiderm4cash.com. 13 March 2005

Yakula, Johanne. “Decorating ‘Victorian Style.’� Front Times Past. 15 March 2005

Nice article Steve, keep up the research.



Countdown to Extinction





By the end of the century one in 10 species of birds in the world will be extinct and a further 15 per cent will be on the brink, according to one of the largest studies of avian biodiversity. It is estimated just over 1 per cent of bird species have become extinct in the past 500 years but habitat loss, disease and climate change will accelerate that tenfold in the next 100 years.

Stanford University in California found that the loss of birds will not only have an impact on other wildlife but could also increase the risk of disease hitting the human population. The report cites the recent decline of three species of Indian vulture, caused by the widespread use of a veterinary drug by local cattle farmers. The decline led to an explosion in the population of feral dogs feeding off dead cows, leading to 30,000 cases of human rabies a year.

"Our projections indicate that, by 2100, up to 14 per cent of species may be extinct and one in four may be functionally extinct, that is critically endangered or extinct in the wild," said Cagan Sekercioglu, who led researchers in the study. "Even though only 1.3 per cent of bird species have gone extinct since 1500, the global number of individual birds is estimated to have experienced a 20 to 25 per cent reduction during the same period," he said.



A total of 11,046 species of plants and animals are threatened, facing a high risk of extinction in the near future, in almost all cases as a result of human activities. This includes 24 percent (one in four) of mammal species and 12 percent (one in eight) of bird species. The total number of threatened animal species has increased from 5,205 to 5,435. Indonesia, India, Brazil and China are among the countries with the most threatened mammals and birds, while plant species are declining rapidly in South and Central America, Central and West Africa, and Southeast Asia. Habitat loss and degradation affect 89 percent of all threatened birds, 83 percent of mammals, and 91 percent of threatened plants assessed. Habitats with the highest number of threatened mammals and birds are lowland and mountain tropical rainforest. Freshwater habitats are extremely vulnerable with many threatened fish, reptile, amphibian and invertebrate species. "Given the momentum of climate change, widespread habitat loss and increasing numbers of invasive species, avian declines and extinctions are predicted to continue unabated in the near future," he added. The study involved analysis of all 9787 species of birds alive today, and of the 129 species that have gone extinct recently, to produce one of the most comprehensive databases ever compiled into the state of one class of animals.

Using a computer forecast, based on present rates of decline, the researchers found that just over one in four species is now prone to extinction and 6.5 per cent are "functionally extinct". A quarter of fruit-eaters and omnivores are in danger, along with a third of herbivores, fish-eaters and scavengers. In the worst-case scenario put forward in the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers predict that threatened bird species will increase by 1 per cent each decade.

"These assumptions are conservative, since it is estimated that every year natural habitats and dependent vertebrate populations decrease by an average of 1.1 per cent," the study said. Gretchen Daily, a member of the research team, said it might be difficult to imagine how the loss of a particular species of bird can cause an outbreak of human disease. "Yet consider the case of the passenger pigeon. Its loss is thought to have made Lyme's disease the huge problem it is today. "When passenger pigeons were abundant and they used to occur in unimaginably large flocks of hundreds of millions of birds, the acorns on which they specialised would have been too scarce to support the large populations of deer mice, the main reservoir of Lyme's disease, that thrive on them today," said Professor Daily



Some recent departures, never to be seen again



Layson Honeyeater Himatiore sanquinea Extinct since about 1923 when the last 3 specimens were seen by the Tanoger Exhibition of the US Biological Society. Several searches were made in the 30s and 40s, but no further birds were found. Their extinction was a result of habitat destruction resulting from the introduction of rabbits to Layson Island in 1903 for commercial reasons. The birds (redbirds as they were known) were endemic to Layson Island.

Ula-Ai-Hawane Aridops anna Extinct, an endemic to the island of Hawaii, the last specimen was caught on 20 February 1892 on Mount Kohala. This was a small finch-like bird predominantly black and grey in colouration, with a reddish rump. It lived in mountain forests.

3 species of Psittirostra (palmeri, flaviceps and kona) are presumed extinct - another 2 (P. psittacea and P. bailleui) are extremely rare and endangered. All have extremely solid, large seed-cracking beaks. For P. palmeri the last reliable record is in 1896. It was found only in Koa forests of Hawaii at about 4000 feet elevation. It was the largest of the group measuring 8.5 inches long. The bird was easily recognised because of its colourful plumage, the male had a orange head, olive back, pale orange rump and yellow breast and belly - females similar except head yellow and back greener.

P. flaviceps. Extinct, another endemic to Hawaii, the last specimen was seen in October 1891. Physically the bird was similar to P. palmeri but smaller lived on the same Koa forests. It fed on seeds.

P. kora Extinct last seen in 1894 when they were already rare and restricted to an area about 4 miles square on the island of Hawaii. They were known to feed on the dry fruits of the Bastard Sandalwood trees. They were about 7 inches long, olive-green with a very large bill.

Drepanis pacifica Common mamo Extinct, last seen in 1898 at above the town of Hilo in Hawaii. An attractive bird with a long thin downward curving beak. Trapped regularly by the natives for its feathers. It is however likely, that as with the other species in this group, that habitat destruction, introduced predators, and disease were primarily responsible for its extinction. Feathers almost entirely black except for a few yellow feathers on rump, wing and under-tail coverts. Fed on nectar.

Drepanis funerea Extinct = Black mamo = last specimen taken in 1907. Confined to the island of Molokai. Similar to the above D. pacifica except no yellow and with a hint of grey on the outer edges of the primaries. Fed on nectar. Introduced brown rats and mongooses are the presumed causes of extinction.

Passenger Pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius Description about 12 inches long and typical pigeon shape and colours and rump and upper tail covets Bluish Grey, Upper back with some iridescent remiges lower back and wing covets brownish grey, Secondaries browner grey, primaries similar to secondaries but with a clear white edge. Tail feathers white except for the middle 2 which were grey. Breast cinnamon-rufous in upper parts becoming paler on lower. Bill black, feed red, eyes orange. Wing length 196-214 mm tail 173-211 mm. This bird lived mainly in deciduous forests in what is now mainland USA exhibiting a North/South migration every year with the summer northerly limit being southern Canada, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec and the southern limit being Appalachians in north Virginia SW to northern Mississippi. Winter northerly limit was Indiana, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts normally, and southern limit being the Gulf of Mexico though stray birds were recorded in Bermuda and even Europe. The most unusual thing about this bird was its colonial nesting and the huge flocks it used to migrate in. Reasonable estimates suggest 2000 million birds in one flock so the populations in N. America was not small. The population appears to have undergone periodic fluctuations with some years of excessive numbers where nesting sites were measured in hundreds of square miles and years in between of less extreme numbers. Insufficient data are available to explain these fluctuations but they undoubtedly contributed to the ease with which this once extremely numerous bird was extirpated. Last specimen (Martha)died on September 1914 in Cincinnati (Ohio) Zoological Gardens. The last certified wild specimen was taken between September 9-15 1899. The bird was a herbivore, feeding mostly on oak and beech mast as well as seeds and fruits of other deciduous trees. It only ever laid one egg per season in captivity, though there are reports of it laying two eggs per nest at least occasionally in the wild.

The Great Auk, Alca impennis Last known specimens killed at Edley Rock, Iceland in 1844. This was a large flightless seabird feeding on fish and eels and nesting on a number of rocky islands in the north Atlantic particularly Gunk Island where the last known breeding colony was exterminated between 1785 and 1841. The birds were killed by seamen for food and by fishermen for food and for use as bait. The largest of the Auks, Great Auks measured about 30 inches (75 cm) long with a black head and back and white front. The bill was large as in all Auks and their feet webbed, they had a white spat before the eye on either side of the face. Wings dark brown with secondaries having white tips. Eye chestnut. The white spat was only present in summer and the dark brown/black of the chin and throat are white. Breeding probably occurred from May-July when the female laid one egg, incubation took about 30 days - we really know very little about it.

Bonin Wood Pigeon, Columba versicolor Extinct since 1889. Last specimen taken on the Japanese Island of Nakondo Shima. A pale wood pigeon with a metallic golden-purple back and head, green neck and rump. Feeding and ecology similar to most wood pigeons. It was endemic to just a few islands in the Baum Island archipelago south of Japan, Nakondo Shima, Peel Island and Kittlitz. It is believed that habitat destruction was the main cause of extinction.

Tahitian Sandpiper, Prosobonia leucoptera Extinct since probably the late 1700s early 1800s,this species was/is known from only one specimen in a museum in Leyden, Holland. It was a small 7 inches long dark brown bird turning rusty on lower portions. It was an endemic of Tahiti and Eimes and apparently frequented small streams. It is believed that it was the introduction of rats and pigs to the islands where it lived that caused its demise.

Crested Sheldrake or Shellduck, Tadorna cristata Extinct (probably), last seen 1916 when a specimen was taken near Fusan, Korea. Searches in more recent years have failed to find any other specimens. It is not known what its full range was, it was known from Korea and Japan and was painted by Japanese artists. It is supposed to have bred in eastern Siberia. Similar in size to the common shellduck/drake (Tadorna tadorna) it had a distinctive head, green on top and grey below in the male and black on top whitish below in the female, otherwise it had a green lower need and upper chest, the rest of the chest, the back and the belly being dark grey otherwise similar to a common Sheldrake (That was the male). The female differs by having a black ring around the eye. No opinions have been offered that I know of to explain its extinction though hunting must be a prime candidate.

The Cuban Red Macaw = Guacamayo = Ara tricolor Now extinct, it was last seen in 1864. an endemic to Cuba, it was small, 20 cms long, mostly red and yellow with some blue and purple. They lived in the vicinity of the Zapata Swamp and nested in holes in palm trees. Though the natives were believed to eat them no reasons are recorded for their extinction.

Guadeloupe Island Caracara Polyborus lutosus Last seen 1 December 1900 this was a large brown hawk endemic to Guadeloupe, it had a black head and a grey tail and is believed to have descended from Polyborus prelutosus. It was a generalist predator and fed on anything that was available from insects, worms and shellfish to small birds and mammals. The natives bred goats and believed that the birds killed the kids so for this reason the natives hunted it ruthlessly. In the 1800's guns and poisons became easier and cheaper to acquire and gave the natives the ability to exterminate the birds. This is one of the few, if not the only case of a bird species being deliberately brought to extinction. In this case it is perhaps ironic that the goats its extermination was designed to protect were an introduced species already doing considerable damage to the environment.

Mysterious Starling Aplonis mavornata This extinct bird is known on from one specimen in the British Museum. Nothing is known of it except that it was probably collected on one of Captain Cook's voyages. It is not even known which Pacific Island it lived on, though now it is found on none.