Annual report on Sarawak.

Date:
[1950]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Sarawak. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    190/230 (page 120)
    in 1951. The boat is named “Burong Bawa”, after the black and white Imperial Nutmeg Pigeon which frequents the Turtle Islands (but not the mainland). Mammals and Birds. The mammals found in Borneo include the remarkable jumping Tarsier, an early evolutionary relation of man, and the extraordinary Scaly-Ant-Eater or Pangolin both of which are represented, somewhat inaccurately, on the current Sarawak stamps. The bird life of Sarawak is incomparably fascinating, and work has been begun on compiling a comprehensive book on the birds of Borneo, for which there is a crying need. Here we are fortunate in having two Government Officers who are eminent ornithologists, Mr. 1). F. Smythies, author of the fine “Birds of Burma” and Mr. Alistair Morrison. In colla¬ boration also with Hr. Gibson-Hill of the Baffles Museum, Singapore and the Curator of the Sarawak Museum, it is hoped to produce a check list on species known and their dis¬ tribution, and then a fuller volume containing information on habits, songs, nesting, etc., etc. Much of this information is still lacking, and contributions from other observers will be warmly welcome. During the year several other discoveries of interest have been made or published. The extremely rare Malay Honey- Guide (Indicator Arch i pela cjicus) was observed and its beha viour recorded near Tapuh in the First Division. I he very beautifully Silver-rumped Spine-tailed Swift (Chaetura leuco'pyfjialis), about which nothing was previously known (believed to be found on the mountains) was noticed on the Bejang and subsequently as abundant on the Tinjar in the Fourth Division, and subsequently at Santubong and even on the Museum grounds itself. Nothing is yet known of its nesting habits. Investigations of the birds’ nests caves in the Bau district upriver from Kuching reveals a new puzzle in connection with the remarkable Swiftlets which make the edible birds nests so highly esteemed as a Chinese delicacy. There appear, at Bau, to be two different Swifts making inedible nests, whereas it was previously thought that there was only one in this part of the world. It is possible that inedible swifts are increasing at the expense of the kinds that make the delicious basis for birds’ nest soup.