Description
Rare lithograph of the best and largest colonial image of the Tooth-billed pigeon, also known as the Manumea by John Gould from his epic series, The Birds of Australia and Adjacent Islands, published for the author, printed by Richard and John E. Taylor, London. It is the national bird of Samoa.
Although not an Australian bird, John Included it in The Birds of Australia. The species was probably found by the United States’ Exploring Expedition under Commander Wilkes in October or November 1839. The discovery of the bird was announced by Hugh Edwin Strickland in September 1844 as being among the rarities obtained by Mr. Titian Peale, the naturalist of the expedition. The formal description was made by William Jardine. Gould probably sourced the bird from stuffed specimens in London.
In his introduction to The Birds of Australia, Gould stated the reasons for endeavouring the mammoth task of documenting the ornithology of Australia; “I was naturally desirous of turning my attention to the Ornithology of some other region; and a variety of opportune and concurring circumstances induced me to select that of Australia, the birds of which, although invested with the highest degree of interest, had been almost entirely neglected In the absence, then, of any general work on the Birds of Australia, the field was comparatively a new one, and of no ordinary degree of interest, from the circumstance of its being one of the finest possessions of the British Crown, and from its natural productions being as remarkable for the anomalous nature of their forms, as for their beauty, and the singularity of their habits.”
Common name: Tooth-billed pigeon,
Binomial name: Didunculus strigirostris
First described: Jardine, 1845
Distribution: Samoa
References:
Ferguson, J. A. Bibliography of Australia Volumes 1-8, Canberra 1976 4773.
Sitwell, S. Fine Bird Books 1700-1900. New York 1990 p.101.
Nissen, C. Die illustrierten Vogelbucher. Stuttgart 1995 IVB 370.
Anker, J. Bird Books and Bird Art. Amsterdam 1979 174, 179.
Sauer, G. C. John Gould The Bird Man: A Chronology and Bibliography London 1982 9, 18.
Chisholm, A. The Story of Elizabeth Gould. Melbourne.
Collections:
National Library Australia: RB Nef F4773
State Library New South Wales: CALL NUMBER: SAFE/X598.2/1
State Library South Australia: 598.2994 d
