Aloer Djamboe was a plantation estate in Tamiang in East Atjeh, lying at 50 metres above sea level, on which part of the collection of bird skins described in Over eene collectie vogelhuiden van Oost-Atjeh by F. C. van Heurn and R. C. E. G. J. Snouckaert van Schauburg was gathered, and on which the earlier, second Atjeh collection of Van Heurn — described in Over de tweede Atjeh-collectie van Jhr. F. C. van Heurn by Snouckaert — was gathered in September–November 1920.
The estate and its management
The estate stood under the management of the agency of the Handelsvereeniging Amsterdam, which granted the collectors permission and all requested facilities. The birds were collected op zwaar heuvelland, aan de grens van plantage en oorspronkelijk bosch — “on heavy hill country at the boundary of plantation and original forest” — the transitional situation that the authors held to be the most productive for tropical collecting, since it gave access both to the typical primeval-forest species and to those of the cultivated zone.
Aloer Djamboe lay in the district the authors singled out for its scenery: Tamiang, the frontier province with the well-forested afdeeling Langkat of the Gouvernement Oostkust van Sumatra, where the densely overgrown hill country fringing the mountains reached the coast, and where the many rivers debouching into the Aroe-baai admitted sea water far inland at flood, producing steep hills overgrown with primeval forest girdled at the foot by mangrove.
The second Atjeh collection of 1920
The estate was the site of the second of the two avifaunal collections made by Van Heurn in Atjeh in 1920. The first collection — described in the Avifaunistische Studien in de Gajo-landen — had been made in the highland region of Lake Takengon (1200 metres) in Gajo-land. The second — described in the Over de tweede Atjeh-collectie van Jhr. F. C. van Heurn — was made at Alas Peurba (200 metres) and Aloer Djamboe (50 metres) in September–November 1920. As Snouckaert records, Ditmaal viel de keuze op veel lager gelegen localiteiten meer nabij de N.O.-kust — “This time the choice fell on much lower-lying localities nearer the northeast coast.”
At Aloer Djamboe, Van Heurn collected through November 1920, with specimens dated from early through late November. The latest date recorded in the second-collection paper is 25 November 1920 (specimens of Spilornis cheela bacha, Eurystomus orientalis, Zanclostomus javanicus, Chloropsis cyanopogon, and Arachnothera affinis at Aloer Djamboe). The paper records specimens from a wide range of bird families collected at Aloer Djamboe, including the crested serpent-eagle, the broad-billed roller, several cuckoos, woodpeckers, broadbills, bulbuls, and spiderhunters.
Deposit
The collection described in the Over de tweede Atjeh-collectie was deposited with the Boekerij van het Koloniaal Instituut — the Library of the Koloniaal Instituut — in Amsterdam.
See Also
- Over de tweede Atjeh-collectie van Jhr. F. C. van Heurn
- Over eene collectie vogelhuiden van Oost-Atjeh
- Avifaunistische Studien in de Gajo-landen
- Alas Peurba
- Tamiang
- Handelsvereeniging Amsterdam
- Aroe Bay
- F. C. van Heurn
- R. C. E. G. J. Snouckaert van Schauburg
- Oost-Atjeh
- Takengon
- Gajo-land
- Koninklijke Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut
- 1920
- 1921
Sources
Over eene collectie vogelhuiden van Oost-Atjeh, door Ir. Jhr. F. C. van Heurn en Mr. Dr. Baron R. C. E. G. J. Snouckaert van Schauburg, in Jaarberichten (Koloniaal Instituut). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Br N 95-1210.
Over de tweede Atjeh-collectie van Jhr. F. C. van Heurn, door Mr. Dr. Baron R. C. E. G. J. Snouckaert van Schauburg, in Jaarberichten van de Koninklijke Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut (Amsterdam). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, shelfmark Br N 95-1208.
Acknowledgement of sources. The material in this article derives from Over eene collectie vogelhuiden van Oost-Atjeh by Ir. Jhr. F. C. van Heurn and Mr. Dr. Baron R. C. E. G. J. Snouckaert van Schauburg (Koloniaal Instituut, Jaarberichten) and from Over de tweede Atjeh-collectie van Jhr. F. C. van Heurn by Mr. Dr. Baron R. C. E. G. J. Snouckaert van Schauburg (Koloniaal Instituut, Jaarberichten). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering.