Bird stencils in Arnhem Land do not provide evidence of climate change: response to Taçon et al. (2010)

Donald C. Franklin & Judit K. Szabo

The Aboriginal rock art of the Arnhem Land Plateau and outliers in northern Australia provides a remarkable 50 000 year window into the cultural and environmental past (Chaloupka 1997). Depictions of a number of globally and regionally extinct mammals, including the Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), Marsupial Lion (Thylacoleo carnifex) and Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), are evidence of environmental change. Birds also feature in the record, notably large species of importance as food items such as Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) and Magpie Goose (Anseranas semipalmata). Furthermore, the plateau has unequivocally undergone major climatic fluctuations during the period of Aboriginal occupancy associated with the ebb and flow of the last glaciation (Nix & Kalma 1972) and during the Holocene (Bourke et al. 2007). However, we question whether the bird stencil portrayed and discussed by Taçon et al. (2010) can be related to climate change.

Figure 1
Figure 1. Singing Honeyeater (Lichenostomus virescens) (photograph: Judit Szabo).
Click to enlarge.

The bird stencil is of interest not only because, as the authors point out, stencils of birds are exceedingly rare, but also because the bird depicted is a relatively small passerine ('bush bird' or 'perching bird') that is unlikely to have featured more than incidentally in the regional Aboriginal diet (McArthur 1960; Jones 1980; Altman 1984; Thomson 2003). Indeed, the only record we could locate of passerines in the Aboriginal diet is of three large species identified from midden bones in Tasmania (Sim & West 2001), over 3000km to the south of the tropical Arnhem Land Plateau.

We agree with Taçon et al. (2010: 423) that the 'the size and shape of the head [of the stencilled bird] suggests the bird is probably a honeyeater'. Honeyeaters are the major component of the Australasian family Meliphagidae and the vernacular honeyeater includes birds also known as friarbirds, wattlebirds and miners. There are 74 meliphagid species in Australia ranging from the 10cm-long Black Honeyeater (Sugomel niger) to the 375–450mm-long Yellow Wattlebird (Anthochaera paradoxa). At least 17 meliphagid species currently occur in or around the Arnhem Land Plateau, including a number that are of similar size to the Singing Honeyeater (Lichenostomus virescens). We are perplexed, therefore, as to why Taçon et al. singled out the Singing Honeyeater (Figure 1) as a candidate. Furthermore, based on the very argument of size that Taçon et al. employ, we argue that the stencil portrays a substantially larger species, possibly a Helmeted Friarbird (Philemon buceroides) (Figures 2 & 3).


Figure 2
Figure 2. The bird stencil from Djulirri (Taçon et al. 2010) outlined in red, with a head profile of the Helmeted Friarbird (ssp. ammitophila, from Schodde et al. [1979]) overlaid.
Click to enlarge.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Helmeted Friarbird (Philemon buceroides gordoni) (photograph: Trevor Collins).
Click to enlarge.

Using the scale bar provided for calibration, we have measured the stencil using three metrics commonly employed when measuring birds (Lowe 1989) (Table 1). Total length is problematic for three reasons: the bird is dead and may be stretched, it is not laid out in the standard linear position for measurement, and the tail is — for a honeyeater — not full length. On this ground alone, the stencil appears to be too large to be of a Singing Honeyeater. Furthermore, on head-bill length (also known as total head length — from back of skull to tip of bill) and tarsus length, measurements that are not prone to stretching or foreshortening, the bird is very much too large for a Singing Honeyeater. We note instead, good conformity with available measurements for the 34cm-long, 120g Helmeted Friarbird. Identification as a friarbird is intuitive to us given also the slender head and relatively thick bill, slender neck and heavy body (Figure 3; Higgins et al. 2001). Furthermore, the heavy body and short tail suggest to us that the bird is a fledgling — a young bird that has only recently left the nest and which was probably not yet able to fly strongly. This might also account for its capture given no evidence that species such as friarbirds were hunted for food, ornamentation or other purposes. An alternative identification could be that of a young Silver-crowned Friarbird (P. argenticeps) that has yet to develop the prominent casque that is a feature of the species as an adult, or even the smaller Little Friarbird (P. citreogularis).


SpeciesTotal lengthHead-bill lengthTarsus length
Table 1. Measurements (mm) of the bird stencil and of select honeyeater species.
Sources: the stencil was measured from Taçon et al. (2010: 422) using the scale bar provided; Singing Honeyeater: Higgins et al. (2001) for the north Australian subspecies cooperi where possible; Helmeted Friarbird: Higgins et al. (2001) for the Arnhem Land Plateau subspecies ammitophila where possible; head-bill length is for ssp. gordoni (Richard Noske unpubl. data).
Singing Honeyeater (Lichenostomus virescens)160-24040-4320-27
Helmeted Friarbird (Philemon buceroides)320-36063-7235-38

Figure 4
Figure 4. Orange-footed Scrubfowl (Megapodius reinwardt) (photograph: Trevor Collins).
Click to enlarge.

Importantly, the Helmeted, Silver-crowned and Little Friarbirds currently occur in and around the Arnhem Land Plateau (Barrett et al. 2003). Two subspecies of the Helmeted Friarbird occur in the region, P. b. gordoni in coastal vegetation and the slightly larger P. b. ammitophila around the Arnhem Land Plateau (Schodde & Mason 1999). Feasibly, either subspecies could occur at or have been brought into the Djulirri outlier, which is between the main plateau and the coast (Taçon et al. 2010: 417).

We further comment on Taçon et al.'s assessment that two recent paintings of birds (Taçon et al. 2010: 425) are of similar size and shape as that of the stencilled bird and may thus have been inspired by it. We have no hesitation in identifying the painted birds as Orange-footed Scrubfowl (Megapodius reindwardt) based on the strongly peaked head, large legs (Megapodius = big foot), thick body and short tail (Marchant & Higgins 1993). The Scrubfowl is a large ground-dwelling bird that lays numerous eggs in mounds of leaf litter, allowing the rotting vegetation to incubate them. The Scrubfowl is extant in the Arnhem Land Plateau and nearby coastal regions, and featured prominently in Aboriginal culture of the region because the eggs, and less commonly the adults, were eaten (McArthur 1960).

It follows from our suggestions that the stencil sheds no light on climate change in the region, and that the paintings were not inspired by the stencil.

Acknowledgements

We thank Trevor Collins for making his photographs of the Helmeted Friarbird and Orange-footed Scrubfowl available, Richard Noske for providing measurements of Helmeted Friarbirds, and Zoltán Szabó for preparing Figure 2.

References

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Authors

Note: Author information correct at time of publication

* Author for correspondence

  • Donald C. Franklin*
    School for Environmental Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT 0909, Australia (Email: don.franklin@cdu.edu.au)
  • Judit K. Szabo
    School for Environmental Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT 0909, Australia