By Wong Kah Wei
As a librarian who teaches information literacy skills to students from the Humanities, Social Sciences and Engineering, I have hardly a chance to immerse myself in the Science subjects. So when I stumbled upon Radio Naturalist (1955), a slim volume with a chichak on its cover, I was naturally curious. What has natural history to do with radio broadcasting? And what an extraordinary name – Tweedie!
Radio Naturalist, is, as the publisher Donald Moore claimed on the back cover of the book, “one of the most useful and pleasant little books it has so far been our good fortune to publish”. The book is a compilation of essays adapted from a series of talks by Michael Tweedie broadcasted over Radio Malaya. Tweedie gave interesting facts about mammals, birds, insects, turtles, crabs and so on in an amusing and fun way.
Michael Willmer Forbes Tweedie was a former curator and then, director of the Raffles Museum. He spent 25 years (from 1932 to 1957) at the museum and was considered “one of the most famous naturalist and zoologists this region has ever produced” (Ng & Yang, 1989).
Tweedie went on many field trips in Malaya, Singapore and the Southeast Asia to collect specimens of birds, reptiles, fish, insects and crustaceans. The crab collection of the museum was considered “particularly impressive” (Ng, 1995). Tweedie published over 20 carcinological scientific papers describing new genera and species of crustaceans. However, he did not only publish but also sent crab specimens to many researchers to examine. These grateful researchers honoured him by naming crabs after him (Ng, 1995). Tweedie was obviously interested in crabs, stating that “they are a favorite group of mine” in the chapter on crabs in Radio Naturalist. In this chapter, Tweedie explained his interest in crabs by describing with much curiosity his observations of their behaviour. He seemed to have spent considerable time watching crabs feeding and burrowing. He told of the auditory sound crabs make called stridulating. He detailed how the Soldier Crab burrows and creates an igloo like structure at the edge of advancing tide. This structure keeps the crab safe in a chamber of air when the tide comes.
To me, the most interesting chapters have got to be about ants and termites. In the chapter on ants, Tweedie introduced us to how an ant community is developed starting with the winged ants mating in the air. He described how the ant queen deliberately breaks off her wings before laying her eggs. The breaking of her wings results in the dissolution of her wing muscles into a liquid which is used to feed her first brood of children. This liquid is their only source of food. In the chapter on termites, Tweedie compared ants and termites. Termites have kings and queens; baby termites do not go through the larva or pupa stages. They are born like mini-termites.
Amusingly, after giving such details of the complex society of ants and expressing admiration for the ant’s industriousness and selflessness, Tweedie ended the chapter gleefully with two formulas on poison to eradicate ants and how to administer the poison, reminding us that “the war against ants must be total war; we cannot afford to be sentimental”.
Another titbit in Radio Naturalist which I cannot help but share is the reference to Wallace’s Flying Frog. This frog has long legs and webbed feet. They are known to glide from tree to tree using their webbed feet as a parachute. Tweedie had only seen one specimen of this frog in his entire life and it was caught near Bentong, Pahang, my hometown.
In addition to Radio Naturalist, Tweedie also wrote other books enticing us to learn more about animals. One particular book grabbed my attention. What would Tweedie write in his book Pleasure from Insects (1968)? Knowing that Tweedie would write in his easy and lay-man style, I quickly borrowed the book. From the table of contents, Tweedie set out to guide us to encounter insects in a direct way. Chapters were on how to look for insects, how to attract them, keep them and photograph them. In the introduction, Tweedie peppered the text with words such as “amusing”, “joy” and “pleasure”. He stated that the book “is written in the belief and in the hope that, by bringing people and insects a little closer together, both may derive benefit from the publication”. In the chapter on photographing insects, Tweedie gave instructions on how to construct stands for cameras. At the end of the book is a “list of useful and enjoyable books about insects” to encourage readers to continue exploring the world of insects. But what I enjoy most are the ink illustrations of butterflies, dragonflies and other insects drawn against a background of flowers, branches, tree barks and so on. These are illustrated by Joyce Bee. Almost all the photographs in the book were taken by Tweedie.
NUS Libraries holds a huge collection of books on flora and fauna which support scholarship and research. It is refreshing when one encounters books on Science written to encourage interest in a light-hearted and humorous way. As far as I am concerned, Tweedie’s dedication to teaching us about animals without overwhelming us with details or belittling us for our lack of knowledge highlights Tweedie primarily as an educator.
Books like these are among those in our collection that invite readers to approach research with delight and pleasure, just as Tweedie clearly did.
References:
Ng, P.K.L. & Yang, C.M. (1989). On Michael Willmer Forbes Tweedie. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 37(1 &2):160-167
Ng, P.K.L. (1995). Michael Willmer Forbes Tweedie (1907-1993). Crustaceana, 68(1), 111–115.
