Palmer’s chickens on Kaua‘i, Hawaiian Islands

When Lionel Walter Rothschild (1868–1937) sent Henry Charles Palmer (1866–1920) out to the Hawaiian archipelago to collect specimens for his ever-growing bird collection, approximately 2,000 bird specimens were collected by Palmer and his assistants George Campbell Munro (1866–1963) and Edward (Ted) Basil Wolstenholme (1864–1926) during December 1890 and August 1893. Several bird species proved to be new to science while others were more familiar (Rothschild 1893–1900). Perhaps the most familiar species was Red Junglefowl (‘chicken’) Gallus gallus, of which five specimens were collected by Palmer and Munro on Kaua‘i during January and February 1891. Both men kept notes in their diaries but, unfortunately, only those of Munro still exist (stored in the Archives collection at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu; BPBM). Being unfamiliar with the avifauna of the Hawaiian archipelago, Munro’s notes about the fowl are those of admiration and fascination. As part of our research into discovery, description and distribution of Hawaiian endemic songbirds, we examined Munro’s notes describing peculiarities of landscape, wildlife and people, but also describing each and every fowl. From previous studies (e.g. Paterson & Brisbin 2005), we deduced that the specimens still existed and, furthermore, might differ in plumage colouration and other characteristics. We therefore wondered if their plumage could be matched to the descriptions in Munro’s diaries. Furthermore, we wondered if this matching process could yield or correct information that is currently attached to the existing specimens which in turn can assist further studies into the avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands in general and of the Kaua‘i avifauna in particular of that time period. The American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA (AMNH) contains many specimens of the Rothschild’s collection (Anonymous 1935), including the majority of the existing Palmer specimens. These include five specimens of fowl from Kaua‘i, for which the original labels that Palmer and Munro attached to in the field still exist (Figure 1). On 26 September 2024, all five were photographed by Said Robles Bello, including the labels, and were matched by us to the descriptions of fowl in Munro’s diary. Furthermore, other diary notes by Munro about fowl on Kaua‘i were extracted by us.