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Fiji Shrikebill
The Fiji shrikebill (''Clytorhynchus vitiensis'') is a songbird species in the family Monarchidae. It is found in American Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. Taxonomy and systematics The Fiji shrikebill was originally described as belonging to the genus '' Myiolestes''. Alternate names include the lesser shrikebill and uniform shrikebill. Subspecies Twelve subspecies are recognized: * Rotuman lesser shrikebill (''C. v. wiglesworthi'') - Mayr, 1933: Found on Rotuma Island (northern Fiji) * ''C. v. brunneus'' - ( Ramsay, EP, 1875): Found on Kadavu, Ono and Vanua Kula (south-western Fiji) * ''C. v. buensis'' - ( Layard, EL, 1876): Originally described as a separate species in the genus '' Myiolestes''. Found on Vana Levu and Kioa (northern Fiji) * ''C. v. vitiensis'' - ( Hartlaub, 1866): Found in western Fiji * ''C. v. layardi'' - Mayr, 1933: Found on Taveuni (central Fiji) * ''C. v. pontifex'' - Mayr, 1933: Found on Qa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gustav Hartlaub
Karel Johan Gustav Hartlaub (8 November 1814 – 29 November 1900) was a German physician and ornithologist. Hartlaub was born in Bremen, and studied at Bonn and Berlin before graduating in medicine at Göttingen. In 1840, he began to study and collect exotic birds, which he donated to the Bremen Natural History Museum. He described some of these species for the first time. In 1852, he set up a new journal with Jean Cabanis, the '' Journal für Ornithologie''. He wrote with Otto Finsch, ''Beitrag zur Fauna Centralpolynesiens: Ornithologie der Viti-, Samoa und Tonga- Inseln''. Halle, H. Schmidt. This 1867 work which has handcoloured lithographs was based on bird specimens collected by Eduard Heinrich Graeffe for Museum Godeffroy. A number of birds were named for him, including Hartlaub's Bustard, Hartlaub's Turaco, Hartlaub's Duck, and Hartlaub's Gull Hartlaub's gull (''Chroicocephalus hartlaubii''), also known as the king gull, it is a small gull. It was formerly sometimes co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edgar Leopold Layard
Edgar Leopold Layard MBOU, (23 July 1824 – 1 January 1900) was a British diplomat and a naturalist mainly interested in ornithology and to a lesser extent the molluscs. He worked for a significant part of his life in Ceylon and later in South Africa, Fiji and New Caledonia. He studied the zoology of these places and established natural history museums in Sri Lanka and South Africa. Several species of animals are named after him. Early life and education Born in the Berti Palace, Florence, Italy, to an English family of Huguenot descent, Layard was the youngest of seven sons (two of the earlier siblings died in infancyLayard, E.L. Unpublished autobiography. MS at Blacker-Wood library, McGill University, Canada.) of Henry Peter John Layard of the Ceylon Civil Service (the son of Charles Peter Layard, dean of Bristol, and grandson of Daniel Peter Layard the physician) with his wife Marianne, a daughter of Nathaniel Austen, banker, of Ramsgate. Through her, he was p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tafahi
Tafahi is a small () island in the north of the Tonga archipelago, in fact closer to Savaii (Samoa) than to the main islands of Tonga. It is only north-northeast away from Niuatoputapu, and fishermen commute in small outboard motorboats almost daily between the two. The island has a population of 14 (in 2021). Other names for Tafahi are Cocos Eylant (coconut island) or Boscawen island. Geography Tafahi is a volcanic island and has the typical cone shape of a stratovolcano. The mountain is called Piu-o-Tafahi (fanpalm of Tafahi) and is high. (The island, , is smaller than Niuatoputapu, but higher). The soil is extremely suited for growing kava and vanilla, whose exports to the rest of Tonga and beyond is the main occupation of the population. The harbour (merely an opening in the fringing reef, only passable by small boats) is at the northwest of the island. A steep staircase leads up to the village, with about 69 residents at the census of 2001, located on a plateau on the nor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Niuatoputapu
Niuatoputapu is a high island in the island nation of Tonga, Pacific Ocean. Its highest point is , and its area is . Its name means ''sacred island''. Older European names for the island are Traitors Island or Keppel Island. Niuatoputapu is located in the north of the Tonga island group, away from Vavau near the border with Samoa. Its closest neighbours are the small island of Tafahi, which is only to the north-northeast, and the island of Niuafo'ou. Those three islands together form the administrative division of the Niuas. Niuatoputapu Airport accepts international flights. The population was 719 in 2021. Until several centuries ago, the inhabitants spoke the Niuatoputapu language, but it was replaced by the Tongan language and went extinct. Nevertheless, the variety of Tongan spoken on Niuatoputapu contains elements of Samoan, Uvean, and Futunan. Geography Niuatoputapu’s highest central area, just beside Vaipoa, is a hill only high. It is the eroded remnant of a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tonga Islands
Located in Oceania, Tonga is a small archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, directly south of Samoa and about two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand. It has 169 islands, 36 of them inhabited, which are in three main groups – Vavaʻu, Haʻapai, and Tongatapu – and cover an -long north–south line. The total size is just . Due to the spread out islands it has the 40th largest Exclusive Economic Zone of . The largest island, Tongatapu, on which the capital city of Nukualofa is located, covers . Geologically the Tongan islands are of two types: most have a limestone base formed from uplifted coral formations; others consist of limestone overlaying a volcanic base. Climate The climate is tropical with a distinct warm period (December–April), during which the temperatures rise above , and a cooler period (May–November), with temperatures rarely rising above . The temperature increases from , and the annual rainfall is from as one moves from Tongatapu in the sout ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otto Finsch
Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch (8 August 1839, Warmbrunn – 31 January 1917, Braunschweig) was a German ethnographer, naturalist and colonial explorer. He is known for a two-volume monograph on the parrots of the world which earned him a doctorate. He also wrote on the people of New Guinea and was involved in plans for German colonization in Southeast Asia. Several species of bird (such as '' Oenanthe finschii'', '' Alophoixus finschii'', '' Psittacula finschii'') are named after him as also the town of Finschhafen in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea and a crater on the moon. Biography Finsch was born at Bad Warmbrunn in Silesia to Mortiz Finsch and Mathilde née Leder. His father was in the glass trade and he too trained as a glass painter. An interest in birds led him to use his artistic skills for the purpose. Finsch went to Budapest in 1857 and studied at the Royal Hungarian University, earning money by preparing natural history specimens. He then spent two years in Russe, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alofi Island
Alofi is an uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean belonging to the French overseas collectivity (''collectivité d'outre-mer'', or ''COM'') of Wallis and Futuna. Alofi was inhabited until 1840. The highest point on the island is Kolofau. The 3,500 ha island is separated from the larger neighbouring island of Futuna by a 1.7 km channel. Alofi has been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International for its red-footed booby colony and the vulnerable shy ground dove, as well as for various restricted-range bird species (including crimson-crowned fruit doves, blue-crowned lorikeets, Polynesian wattled honeyeaters, Polynesian trillers, Fiji shrikebill The Fiji shrikebill (''Clytorhynchus vitiensis'') is a songbird species in the family Monarchidae. It is found in American Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. Taxonomy and systematics The ...s and Polynesian starlings). References *Cartes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Futuna (Wallis And Futuna)
Futuna (; ) is an island in the Pacific Ocean occupying area of with a population of 10,912. It belongs to the French overseas collectivity (''collectivité d'outre-mer'', or ''COM'') of Wallis and Futuna. It is one of the Hoorn Islands or Îles Horne; nearby Alofi is the other. They are both remnants of the same ancient, extinct volcano, now bordered with a fringing reef. Futuna has a maximum elevation of . Futuna is where Pierre Chanel was martyred in 1841, becoming Polynesia's only Catholic saint. The cathedral of Poi now stands on the site where he was martyred. Futuna takes its name from an endonym derived from the local ''futu'', meaning fish-poison tree. Geography The population was 10,765 (as of the 2022 census);. Futuna's highest point is Mont Puke at above sea level, and the island has an area of , with in Sigave and in Alo. Climate Futuna (Maopoopo weather station) has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen climate classification ''Af''). The average annu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Wetmore
Frank Alexander Wetmore (June 18, 1886 – December 7, 1978) was an American ornithologist and avian paleontologist. He was the sixth Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Early life and education The son of a Country Physician, Frank Alexander Wetmore was born in North Freedom, Wisconsin. Developing an interest in birds at an early age, he made his first field journal entry (a pelican seen while on vacation in 1894) at the age of eight. By 1900, Wetmore published his first paper "My Experience with a Red-headed Woodpecker," in the magazine Bird-Lore. To further his education Wetmore enrolled at the University of Kansas in 1905. During his studies there he did a stint as an assistant in the University Museum, under the direction of Charles D. Bunker. Alexander Wetmore later received his BA from the University of Kansas in 1912; finally receiving his MS in 1916 & PhD in 1920 from George Washington University. Wetmore began federal service in 1910, working for the Biological ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lau Islands
The Lau Islands aka little Tonga (also called the Lau Group, the Eastern Group, the Eastern Archipelago) of Fiji are situated in the southern Pacific Ocean, just east of the Koro Sea. Of this chain of about sixty islands and islets, about thirty are inhabited. The Lau Group covers a land area of 188 square miles (487 square km), and had a population of 10,683 at the most recent census in 2007. While most of the northern Lau Group are high islands of volcanic origin, those of the south are mostly carbonate low islands. Administratively the islands belong to Lau Province. History The British explorer James Cook reached Vatoa in 1774. By the time of the discovery of the Ono Group in 1820, the Lau archipelago was the most mapped area of Fiji. Political unity came late to the Lau Islands. Historically, they comprised three territories: the Northern Lau Islands, the Southern Lau Islands, and the Moala Islands. Around 1855, the renegade Tongan prince Enele Ma'afu co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rabi Island
Rabi (pronounced ) is a volcanic island in northern Fiji. It is an outlier to Taveuni (5 kilometers west), in the Vanua Levu Group. It covers an area of 66.3 square kilometers, reaching a maximum altitude of 463 meters and has a shoreline of 46.2 kilometers. With a population of around 5,000, Rabi is home to the Banabans who are the indigenous landowners of Ocean Island; the indigenous Fijian community that formerly lived on Rabi was moved to Taveuni after the island was purchased by the British government. The original inhabitants still maintain their links to the island, and still use the Rabi name in national competitions. Geography Rabi has four main settlements – all named after, and populated by the descendants of, four villages on Banaba that were destroyed by the invading Japanese forces in the Second World War. Tabwewa Village, formerly known as Nuku or Kai Nuku in Fijian, is the administrative centre of Rabi. Located in the far north of the island, Tabwewa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qamea
Qamea (pronounced ) is one of three islets lying to the east of Thurston Point on the island of Taveuni, Fiji, the others being Matagi and Laucala. Geography Qamea lies some 2.5 kilometers east of Thurston Point and covers an area of 34 square kilometers. Its length is 10 kilometers; its width varies from a few hundred meters to five kilometers. The island is characterized by high hills (some as much as 300 meters in height) and steep valleys. Indigenous fauna survived better in Qamea than in many other areas of Fiji, as the mongoose was never introduced. Qamea's Naivivi Bay is known geographically as a hurricane hole - a natural shelter from hurricanes. Demographic and economic factors Kocoma, which has a population of about 550, is the largest of six villages on the island. The others are Dreketi, Togo, Naiviivi, Vatusogosogo, and Waibulu. The islanders are noted for a particular delicacy called ''paileve,'' which is fermented in a pit. Also famous is the migration of "la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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