This was the picture:
Well, nobody actually got it. To start you would have
had to get the bird, not so hard for all those globe-trotting tickers out
there. Oh well, maybe just a bit off the beaten track. The
grass-skirted figure was intended to direct attention to the South Seas.
THE B IRD
The illustration is from a watercolour by George Edward
Lodge, painted for Walter Rothschild’s ‘Extinct Birds’ (1907). It
is said to be a White-winged Sandpiper Prosobonia leucoptera. That
bird is similar to, and may be the same as, P ellisi. Wikipedia
says:
“The two to four species of Polynesian
sandpipers, the only members of the genus Prosobonia, are
small wading birds confined to
remote Pacific
islands of French Polynesia. Only one species now exists, and
it is rare and little known. This bird is sometimes separated in the genus Aechmorhynchus,
restricting the genus to the extinct southern forms.
The Tuamotu
Sandpiper, P. cancellata, is a unique short-billed all-brown wader
previously found over a large area of the Pacific, but now confined to a few
islands in the Tuamotu archipelago and still declining. Its
decline appears to be due to human habitation encroachment and introduced
mammals. It feeds on insects, but takes some vegetable material from its
coastal haunts. It nests on the ground, and has a soft piping call.
The extinct Tahitian Sandpiper, P. leucoptera of Tahiti was similar
in size and shape to P. cancellata. It had brown upperparts, reddish
underparts, a white wingbar, and some white on the face and throat. It became
extinct in the 19th century, and little is known of it.
There was a similar bird on Moorea which
differed in some minor details from P. leucoptera, notably the larger
extent of white in the wing, and has been described as White-winged Sandpiper (P. ellisi).
However, although two species are generally listed, the question whether they
actually did constitute separate species is probably unresolvable as only a
single specimen of it exists today, apart from some contemporary paintings.”
‘ELLIS’
According to ‘Whose Bird?’, Beolens & Watkins (2003) (a
little volume that, as notified on this chatline, was available until recently
at Academic Remainders, Fyshwick), Richard Bowdler Sharpe named the sandpiper
in 1906, describing it from fossil material. Ellis’ Sandpiper was named ellisi
for William Webb Ellis (? -1786), a surgeon’s mate, artist and collector on
Cook’s third voyage. The entry continues: “We assume him to be a
relative (the grandfather perhaps) of the famous William Webb Ellis, who
invented Rugby football ...”. My ancient edition of the
Encycl Brit says in its ‘Football’ article, “It was a famous violation of this
rule on carrying the ball by William Webb Ellis in 1823 which led to the basic
feature dividing modern players into two parties, those who want to play with
their feet alone and those who want to play with both hands and feet.”
THE BRUMBIES
For the non-Canberran, I should mention that the Brumbies
are a team of rugby players, indeed the only Australian team to have won the
Super-whatever, against other provincial teams from Australia, New Zealand and
South Africa. Depending on how you see the matter, but for the
Ellis family the Brumbies either (a) would not exist or, if they did, (b) would
be soccering around a spherical ball, and, as a group, would be of
slighter build, more agile and with thinner thighs and necks. Under
possibility (b), ironically, their game would lack significant participation by
persons of Polynesian descent whose sturdiness gives them an advantage under
the present Ellis-inspired ball-carrying regime.
