A Leper? armed and dangerous

[Chris J. Durden]

That reminds me of the 19thC tropical lepidopterists (there, that is not 
hard to say), who used dust shot for large papilionids. These were 
definitely not collectors of perfect specimens. They wanted something to 
describe from a place to which they would never expect to return.
    Conversely, C. H. Muller, THE Expert on American oaks once collected in 
a butterfly net, the type specimen of a hummingbird later described by 
Oberholtzer as *Phasmornis mystica* - Chisos Hummingbird, which is either a 
very rare or recently extinct endemic genus and species or is a remarkable 
gnome-like variant of the Black Chinned Hummingbird. I cannot check the 
type and only specimen because our small but priceless Univ. of Texas bird 
collection was recently traded to Texas Tech Univ. in exchange for herps 
because we had no funds to hire a curator for birds and mammals!
    Back to lepidopterans - I carry in my field bag, several bankers rubber 
bands. I have used these for securing stunned butterfly voucher specimens 
from high in trees, most notably for *Basilarchia obsoleta* near the top of 
willows in Arizona and *Panacea* spp. in Amazon woodland. Back home I use 
them to stun that venerable 72 million-year-old species *Periplaneta 
fuliginosa* for food, for my Veiled Chameleon aka Broccoli Bob.
    "Lepidopterist" is in my 1966 Unabridged Random House Dictionary (the 
last really good one). Leper is someone with Hansens Disease. Birder is one 
who hunts or raises birds. Bugger and Lepper are best ignored in our 
context as inappropriate terms.
............Chris Durden

At 02:47 PM 7/12/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>Ron -
>
>     Actually, the early ornithologists got it right - the "cane gun".
>
>      Most of the time it was a sturdy, functional walking stick, but you
>never knew when a new bird species would show up in a backyard or while
>taking a brisk walk around the block.  "Egad - what IS that little bird?  I
>have never seen one like it before!"   At that point the "walking stick"
>spouted fire and lead shot, and another museum specimen hit the ground.
>
>     Now they are treasured by gun collectors, not bird collectors.
>
>Clay Taylor



 
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