Charles Bragg wrote, Thu, 13 May 2004:
>
> What I'd like to hear about is a bird *making* a musical instrument, as those
> New Caledonian Crows make tools for getting food. When the lyrebirds start
> peeling the bark off sticks and drying them for a while to make louder sounds,
> that's when I'll get excited.
Well now that you mention it Chuck, Dr Milewski wrote to me:
>
> As chance would have it, I myself stumbled on another apparent case, this
time involving the palm cockatoo of northern Queensland. This bird drums on
hollow branches using a specially fashioned and stored piece of wood,
grasped in one foot. The difference from lyrebirds is that it apparently
does not sing while beating its drum. So the palm cockatoo plays a musical
> instrument, but not in accompaniment as in the case of lyrebirds.
>
By happy coincidence, a week or so ago I was copying for a colleague, a
recording of a Palm Cockatoo calling and tapping a branch. The recording
was made, late 1960s, at Iron Range on Cape York Peninsula, (north
Queensland, Australia) by my friend Peter Ogilvie, then National Parks
Zoologist in the Queensland Dept. of Forestry, now Manager, World Heritage
Unit, Queensland Environmental Protection Agency.
My recollection is that Peter told me the bird was holding some sort of nut
in its foot and tapping it on the branch. I had not been aware of their
actually fashioning a tapping instrument, so I turned to HANZAAB.
The "Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds," Editor P.J.
Higgins, Oxford University Press, 1999. Volume 4, page 35:
"Drumsticks used at Scrubby Creek, Iron Range, were either nut of
Grevillea glauca or a stick. Prepare sticks before use by cutting fresh
branch from tree then stripping foliage and bark. One stick measured c. 2cm
thick and c. 10 cm long, another c.12 cm long (Wood 1984, 1987, 1988);
another c. 30 cm long and 3.5 cm thick (Sindel & Lynn Undated)." (And so
on.)
Cheers
Syd
"Before songbirds become musicians, they have to be music students."
- Ronald Orenstein, "Songbirds - Celebrating Nature's Voices"
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The references given by HANZAAB, in case anyone wishes to check them out:
Wood GA, 1984 "Corella" 8:94-5
1987 "Australian Natural History 22: 199-201
1988 Corella" 12: 48-52
Sindel, S. & R. Lynn. Undated [c. 1988]. "Australian Cockatoos". Singil
Press, Austral, New South Wales.
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>From Tue Mar 8 18:27:10 2005
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 13:38:18 +0000
From:
Subject: Re: Lyrebird playing a musical instrument
Yes Syd,
Lord Howe Island, just reading your wonderful words describing the island I
can tell you are enamored. And I surely enjoyed reading those words.
Again, thank you.
J
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