ORNITHOLOGICAL LITERATURE OF THE PAPUAN SUBREGION 1915 TO 1976 AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY CLIFFORD B. FRITH BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY VOLUME 164 : ARTICLE 3 NEW YORK: 1979 4 ORNITHOLOGICAL LITERATURE OF THE PAPUAN SUBREGION 1915 TO 1976 AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY CLIFFORD B. FRITH Research Student, Monash University Melbourne, Australia BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY VOLUME 164 : ARTICLE 3 NEW YORK: 1979 BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Volume 164, article 3, pages 377-465, figure 1 Issued September 21, 1979 Price: $6.15 a copy ISSN 0003-0090 Copyright (©) American Museum of Natural History 1979 INTRODUCTION "Bibliography is a most unrewarding occupation, because one tends to get blamed for what one has overlooked, rather than praised for what one has accomplished." (G. F. Mees, 1969) Compilation of this bibliography was origi- 1915) provides a historically noteworthy and a nally started for my personal reference and use suitable point of advancement in New Guinea as an aid to my ornithological work on the ornithology. It is particularly suitable because Papuan Subregion avifauna. The geographical Ogilvie-Grant provides in the introduction to area covered is that referred to by Mayr in his his account a list of over 175 "principal papers List of New Guinea Birds (1941) as the New relating to the birds of New Guinea; including Guinea Region, and subsequently termed the the Kei and Aru Islands," covering the years Papuan Subregion by Rand and Gilliard in their 1858-1915. This list provides a quick reference Handbook of New Guinea Birds (1967). As the into the literature pre-dating 1915. work was not initially intended for publication I As the bibliography is primarily for the continued to compile it slowly over the years, working ornithologist not having ready access interrupted by travel and residence in Australia, to good library facilities, I have been very Europe, the Indian Ocean, and Southeast Asia. broad-minded as to what titles I have included. As it progressed, however, it became obvious Thus, a number of publications of perhaps that the bibliography was becoming an in- questionable significance, or use, to New creasingly useful research tool in itself, bring- Guinea ornithology are included. My thinking ing together the widely dispersed literature on behind this is that, for example, a worker the New Guinea avifauna, and that its publica- studying New Guinea ratites who comes across tion would provide a useful contribution to fu- the title Emus in New Guinea (see no. 148) ture ornithological work on the avifauna. With need simply to check the bibliography entry to this, and the encouragement and enthusiasm of gain some indication of the significance of the a number of other New Guinea ornithologists in paper before going to greater expense of time mind, I decided in 1976 to put together a final and money to see or obtain a copy. At the manuscript and publish it. The bibliography other extreme some very generalized publica- was compiled with the present-day New Guinea tions, such as works dealing with the birds of ornithologist in mind and I have, therefore, prey, pigeons, parrots, or owls of the world are retained its original form and function in the included for similar bibliographic reasons. A final product. The bibliography is thus com- worker reviewing the owls of New Guinea need piled, annotated, and cross-referenced with the not be aware of Burton's recent book (see no. working ornithologist's needs being the first 143), but he might, not unreasonably, expect to consideration. I decided, from the beginning, to find reference to it in a bibliography to New include literature only from a time subsequent Guinea birds. Moreover, the inclusion of such to the majority of purely or very predominantly generalized, but taxonomically restricted, works descriptive ornithology, but also from a time makes the systematic cross-reference section of when more ecological and behavioral work this bibliography considerably more com- commenced in New Guinea. To define such a prehensive and meaningful. Certainly, the period of transition is difficult, and so I have worker wishing to know of the available litera- used 1915 as a convenient starting point. The ture on the parrots of New Guinea would be publication of the results of the British Or- badly mislead if Forshaw's book (no. 274) nithologists' Union Expedition (1909-1913) to were not included herein! Dutch New Guinea in that year (Ogilvie-Grant, A problem concerning my broad selection of 379 380 BULLETIN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY VOL. 164 titles for incorporation is defining the point at Because the preparation of the final manu- which papers do not warrant inclusion. It could script was done in the relative isolation of be argued that many additional titles dealing southern Thailand I have had to depend to with the New Guinea avifauna in a fragmentary some extent on friends and colleagues for help way should be included. Good examples are (see Acknowledgments) in filling quite a num- the volumes of Peters's Check-list of Birds of ber of gaps. Such gaps varied from merely the the World which include New Guinea taxa, as pagination of a title, or its translation, to hav- well as some very predominantly New Guinea ing them provide me with the full title and families. As already stressed, however, the bib- journal reference as well as an annotation. liography is for the use of the working or- Thus, whilst the vast majority of all details and nithologist and is not offered as an example of annotation content are my own, some are by meticulous bibliographic comprehensiveness. others. This has doubtless resulted in some in- Whilst I do not expect ornithologists to be consistencies and inaccuracy of detail, which I aware of the titles and content of the in- would ask the reader to point out. This is a first creasingly large number of bird books being attempt to provide a useful bibliography to produced annually, I must assume that users of New Guinea ornithology. It is hoped that a this work of reference are familiar with cor- subsequent revised and up-dated edition will nerstones of ornithology such as Peters's check- appear at some future time which will be con- list, Thomson's New Dictionary and many oth- siderably more comprehensive, and thus useful, ers. as a result of additions and corrections provided The majority of the most recent revision of by users of the present contribution. the included literature and its cross-referencing The following figures indicate the numbers was carried out during a visit to the American of publications included in this bibliography, at Museum of Natural History early in 1976. The the time of writing, that were published in five- compilation and production of the final manu- year periods since 1915. When we take into script was performed in Thailand during 1977 account the effect of world wars on the produc- to the end of June. Thus, whilst it is hoped that tion of publications, these figures show a the bibliography is fairly complete to the end of steady increase in work on New Guinea birds. 1976 only those 1977 publications known to me The more recent, and particularly, the present in June are incorporated into the author list; interest in the birds of this area as indicated by whilst those I find subsequent to that time will publication numbers is truly remarkable. be added to an addenda, herein, in an attempt 1915-1919= 32 1950-1954 = 52 to have the bibliography as up-to-date as possi- 1920-1924= 43 1955-1959 = 90 ble up to the time it reaches the editor. A point 1925-1929= 53 1960-1964 = 70 was reached at which titles had to be given 1930-1934= 90 1965-1969 = 121 numbers in order to cross-reference and extract 1935-1939= 78 1970-1974 = 167 systematic and geographical subject content; 1940-1944= 66 1975-1977 = 142 this point was June 1977. 1945-1949= 26 CONVENTIONS TITLE REFERENCE NUMBER THE TITLES Each title, listed in alphabetical order of These appear as worded in the original pub- author(s), is given a reference number. These lication, with the exception that I have given numbers are printed below the author(s) name all scientific names in italics regardless of the and appear in other parts of this work where printed form in the original. In addition I have reference is made to the publications. capitalized the first letter of each word in the 1979 FRITH: ORNITHOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 381 full vernacular names of birds. For example: THE ANNOTATIONS Crested Tern, White-shouldered Wren, Black- backed Least Bittern, etc. This I do for consis- Annotations for the publications are ex- tency, and because I believe this is the best tremely variable in length and in the degree to way to deal with the problem of vernacular which they indicate the subject content and names, and that it should be standard practice. scope of the papers. This is inevitable in a For the convenience of users of this bibliog- bibliography which aims to annotate the titles raphy and for reference I have continued to with the present-day working ornithologist in prefix the title of certain American Museum of mind. Moreover, space has been a governing Natural History publications with "Birds of the factor throughout this work. Thus, in most cases, I give no more than a translation to titles Whitney South Sea Expedition no. " de- spite the fact that this information was given as originally published in languages other than a footnote on later publications in this series. English.