Australians Have Unique Collection

Late in the Field, but now— Australians Have Unique Collection Of NG Mammals and Birds

With possibly one exception, there are no privately endowed Scientific institutions in Australia—so lack of funds has until July, 1954, kept Aus tralian collectors out of the rich New Guinea field. Overseas institutions have, however, been quick to investigate NG’s bird and mammal life.

AN expedition has recently been completed in the Highlands of New Guinea by Mr. Ellis LeG.

Troughton, Curator of Mammals at the Australian Museum, accom panied by Preparator Norman Camps.

Starting off from Korn Agricul tural Station in the Mount Hagen area, and led by well-known Terri torial!, Mr. N. B. Blood, they visited Menjim, the Jimmi River area, Mageh, Tomba and the Kubor Ranges. Approximately one month was spent in actual collecting.

Apart from the Fly River expedi tion by the NSW branch of the Royal Geographical Society in the ’Bos, this two-man expedition re presents the only attempt this cen tury by any Australian museum to undertake field work in general zoology. There have, of course, been numerous overseas expeditions before and following on the last war, such as those of Archbold and Gilliard for the American Museum

of Natural History, Count Glyden stolpe of the Stockholm Museum, and others.

During the Sydney expedition, the accent has been especially on mammals and birds, according to Mr. Troughton—not only because of the rich radiation of marsupial life, paralleling that of the Aus tralian mainland, but also the re markable deployment of rodents, suggesting a primitive infiltration of furred animals through the Phillipines.

Following German annexation of the NG Territory, the Director of the Berlin Museum, Paul Matschie, described a number of marsupials.

The most spectacular of all, the red-brown ahd orange-yellow tree climbing kangaroo (Dendrolagus— tree-hare), bears his name.

A fine species of both bright and sombre species of the tree-haunting kangaroos had already been col lected for the Australian Museum by Mr. Blood, under whose experi

enced guidance the Museum party was successful in obtaining repre sentatives of every marsupial family occurring in New Guinea, includ ing the spotted native cat and large and small marsupial mice (family Dasyuridae), bandicoots (Perameli dae), and numbers of possum species (Phalangeridae). The latter included three kinds of Cuscus or “karpul”, three of Ringtail possums, the small glider possums, beloved of servicemen during the last war, and pigmy and feather-tailed species.

The giant rodents included the genus Mallomys, a species of which was named rothschildi in 1898, and which was not represented in the Australian Museum until a pair was presented by Mr. Blood after the last war. The present party was fortunate in obtaining two speci mens of this arboreal giant rat, with an average total length of 2 ft 6 in. It is file-like, and func tions as a kind of “climbing-iron” for its arboreal leafeating existence.

Birds of Paradise collected num bered 32, including 9 species, with

an average of three, and not more than five of any one kind. Con trary to a popular belief, museums do not seek huge collections or ex ercise an exterminating influence, the specimens being regarded as scientific treasures not requiring constant renewal, as with the ex hibition of live animals and birds.

About 1,000 specimens were col lected in little over a month in the field.

There were at least 220 birds’ skins and over 170 furred animals, including a number of marsupials and rodents hitherto not repre sented in any Australian museum.

Such excellent results could not have been obtained without much preliminary planning and the gen erous co-operation of the Adminis tration of Papua and New Guinea and their various Services, in sup plying preservatives and materials, and the services of an experienced officer.

Since becoming Mammalogist at the Australian Museum, Mr.

Troughton has acquired a variety of specimens with the aid of offi cials and residents in New Guinea and adjacent island groups. Col lections were also received in con nection with Dr. C. E. M. Gunther’s investigation of the animal hosts of scrub typhus, prior to the last war, and by Troughton himself during three months’ study of the animal carriers of the infection in the Ter ritories and Dutch New Guinea, to wards the end of the war.

However, the present brief period of intensive collecting marks a forward step in the study of the fauna of the South-West Pacific which should expedite Administrative plans for a proposed Museum on the Territories, to be located at Port Moresby. A cross-section of the recent collections is to be retained

at the Australian Museum on be half of the Territories’ Administra tion. With similar contributions from foreign and British museum collectors, a comprehensive repre sentation of fauna should be avail able to stock the Port Moresby Museum when a building is avail able for it.