The word raptor is derived from the Latin raptare, to seize and carry off. He also allegedly profited from the sale to the city of overpriced land and hotel concessions on city-owned filled-in land. Diurnal birds of prey hawks, eagles, vultures, and falcons (Falconiformes)are also called raptors, which comprise more than 500 species.
As interior secretary, the city laughterhouses were under him, and Worcester was alleged to have made a profit from the illegal sale of diseased cattle meat. He was offended by the line that said he had: “the characteristics of the vulture, the owl and the vampire.” Worcester was said to have used his anthropological research on the Igorot as a cover to seek out gold deposits in Benguet for his personal gain the same, too, for untapped and unknown natural resources in Mindoro and Mindanao. In 1898, Worcester published “A list of (526) birds known to inhabit the Philippine and Palawan Islands.” His field research, publications and linguistic skills resulted in his appointments to the Philippine Commission and later as interior secretary.Īs a bird man, Worcester did not take kindly to the insinuation that he was like a rapacious eagle that plundered his fellow men. Most hunt in the diurnal and hunt in the day, except owls which are mostly nocturnal and hunt at night. Birds of prey hunt and eat other animals, mainly mammals, reptiles, and smaller birds, but some also hunt fish. He had been to the Spanish Philippines twice: first as part of the Steere Expedition to the Philippines (August 1887-July 1888) that resulted in a published list and classification in 1890 second in 1891-1893, which resulted in Worcester’s own “Preliminary Notes on the Birds and Mammals Collected by the Menage Scientific Expedition to the Philippine Islands” (1894), coauthored with Frank Bourns. Michigan has 35 birds of prey that have been spotted here which includes owls, eagles, hawks, vultures, falcons, kites, and osprey. Worcester’s early work in the Philippines was related to birds. Worcester may have won the case, but Philippine history has chosen to remember him as the villain, and El Renacimiento commemorated as a nationalist paper that fought for press freedom during the American colonial period. Convicted and sentenced to prison, Kalaw and Ocampo evaded jail time as the case dragged on for years on appeal until 1914, when Governor-General Francis Burton Harrison pardoned the two. Crippled by fines and legal fees, El Renacimiento was forced to close and its assets sold to cover expenses. Worcester kept popping up in museums I visited in Washington, New York, Chicago and Michigan.Īll I knew was that Worcester was interior secretary and a member of the Philippine Commission who felt alluded to by the “Birds of Prey” editorial, and sued El Renacimiento and its staff for libel. The essay that I merely took as an example of how not to write an essay came to mind two decades later, while I was researching “American Pioneers in Philippine Archeology” on a Fulbright fellowship, and the name Dean C. “Birds of Prey” was required reading in freshman English class, though I found it boring without historical context.
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