Birds of South Yemen
Ornithological enthusiasts have long beenintrigued by the rich diversity of Yemen's birds. Several of theearlier Western travelers collected specimens, perhaps the mostnotable being the work of G. Wyman Bury. Bury visited both north andsouth, recording his adventures in 1911 (The Land of Uz,London) and 1915 (Arabia Infelix, or the Turks of Yemen,London). The birds collected by Bury were later studied by Sclaterin 1917 (Ibis, Series 10, Vol. 5, #2, 129-86.) There are a number ofscattered reports available on Yemen's avifauna, especially due towork of the Ornithological Society of the Middle East and suchobservers as Richard Porter, Michael Rands, and Michael Jennings.
There is admittedly little informationavailable on Yemeni birds in Arabic. Jamil al-Ba'dani published asmall booklet on endangered bird species for the Ministry ofAgriculture in the north. The major new contribution is anillustrated guide to the birds of South Yemen by Nabil 'Abd al-Latif'Ubadi. This is his: al-Tuyur al-Yamaniya. Namadhij min tuyurjumhuriya al-Yaman al-dimuqratiya al-sha'biya, published inSingapore in 1989. (The address of the publisher is Kerjaya PrintingIndustries, 122 Eunos Avenue 7, #02-11/12 Richfield IndustrialCentre, Singapore 1440, and that of the author is Nabil 'Abd al-Latif'Ubadi, P.O.B. 916, Crater, Aden, Republic of Yemen). In some 194pages the author describes a little less than 200 bird species.
Each bird is identified by its generalArabic name, local Yemeni name, English term and scientificnomenclature. It is, however, hard to believe that there are so fewYemeni names for the birds cited. This surely speaks more to theauthor's lack of information than a failure on the part of Yemenis torecognize different sorts of birds. A description of the bird isprovided, along with a discussion of its natural habitat, diet andreproduction pattern. Each description is accompanied by a colorphotograph, although the reproduction quality of these is poor inmost cases.
To give an idea of the type of informationpresented by 'Ubadi, it is best to translate an example. Let us takethe case of the hoopoe (Upupa epops), called hudhud inArabic. The author notes that it is called yubyub locally inRadfan. This term is heard in a number of Yemeni dialects, wherethere are recorded variants of yumyum and yudyud aswell.
The description runs as follows: "It isconvenient to distinguish the hoopoe by its vertical crest(qunzu'a) and its long curved beak. The upper parts arereddish brown in color, while the lower parts are whitish. The back,shoulders and wings are mixed black and white. The tail is black,but cutting across the width is a white band."
The natural habitat of the hoopoe is definedas "level fields and plains; thus agricultural plots on the terraces. It nests in garden areas (al-hada'iq wa-al-basatin), woodlandand agricultural plots near villages." Its diet is said to consistof "insects and their larvae. For this reason it is counted as oneof the beneficial birds with many benefits for agriculture. Anumber of international laws prohibit it's hunting or harming of itsnests." The author goes on to explain: "The nest is placed inrotten trees or breaks in the upper parts of house walls (e.g., inYafi'). The nest is of simple construction. The female depositsfour white eggs."
| |