Bird specimen, source of feather currency. [El.B 26/08/2011]

Collection type: Object
Description: Bird specimen, source of feather currency. [El.B 26/08/2011]
Geographical reference: Solomon Islands
Oceania > Melanesia > Solomon Islands; Santa Cruz Islands
Person: Field collector Unknown Collector; PRM source Irene Marguerite Beasley
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1954
Date collected: 1954
Acquisition information: Donated: 1954
Materials and processes: Material Bird
Dimensions: Length: max 105 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1954.4.18
Research and responses: Beasley writes in "Notes on the Red Feather Money of Santa Cruz" that the bird from which the red feathers are taken was mis-identified by Codrington in 1891 as Trichoglossus massena (current name Trichoglossus haematodus massena), and that this 'unfortunately has been copied by all subsequent writers'. See 1911.54.108 for such a (mis-)identification. Beasley's article can be accessed here: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2844087. [El.B 26/08/2011]

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