Ornithologists

"Hunting, fishing, drawing, and music occupied my every moment; cares I knew not, and cared naught about them. I purchased excellent and beautiful horses, visited all such neighbors as I found congenial spirits, and was as happy as happy could be."

"I cannot write at all, but if I could how could I make a little book, when I have seen enough to make a dozen large books? I will not write at all."

"Captain Hall expressed some doubts as to my views respecting the affection and love of pigeons, as if I made it human, and raised the possessors quite above the brutes. I presume the love of the mothers for their young is much the same as the love of woman for her offspring. There is but one kind of love; God is love, and all his creatures derive theirs from his; only it is modified by the different degrees of intelligence in different beings and creatures."

"I took down my portfolio, to select a drawing to copy in oil. He had never seen my works before, and appeared astonished as his eyes ranged over the sheets. He expressed the warmest admiration, and said, "How hopeless must be the task of my giving any instruction to one who can draw like this?" I pointed out to him that nature is the great study for the artist, and assured him that the reason why my works pleased him was because they are all exact copies of the works of God, — who is the great Architect and perfect Artist; and impressed on his mind this fact, that nature indifferently copied is far superior to the best idealities."

"Thank God it has rained all day. I say thank God, though rain is no rarity, because it is the duty of every man to be thankful for whatever happens by the will of the Omnipotent Creator; yet it was not so agreeable to any of my party as a fine day would have been."

"A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children."

"The amazing number of species; their curious forms, so infinitely varied, and yet so nearly and gradually approximating through an endless series of transitions from one species to another; the diversity of structure observable in those parts which afford generic characters, added to the wonderful changes in form which they undergo, with their surprising economy - are circumstances which contribute to render them objects of most curious speculation to the philosopher. And although the study of every class of animals is most indisputably attended with peculiar advantages, yet we shall venture to affirm, that is from a knowledge of the characters, metamorphoses, and various modes of life, this little animals are destined to pursue, that [the natural philosopher] will obtain a more intimate acquaintance with the great laws of nature, and veneration for the Great Creator of all, that can be derived from the contemplation of any other class in nature."

"Music is motion from nonrest to rest."

"I find him interesting, especially when played by Yvonne Loriod. The works of his I've heard often start magnificantly, but their initial promise is never realized, and you get these sugar-water climaxes that I can't stand. Splendid ideas, then suddenly Gershwin, cloying sweetness! Having said that, I like Gershwin a lot. He's excellent in his own field, and less sentimental than Messiaen."

"must eat flesh or die; primitive man may be in the same state, whether he be or ; what about the sportsman? The man who owns a , or partridge manor has a moral right to take a share of the natural increase of the animals on his ground if he uses decent methods."

"As the dominant mammal on the face of the earth, as the clever one, the only one as far as we know capable of reflection and of accumulating knowledge, our duty is plain, to serve the lesser creation, to keep our world clean and pass on to posterity a record of which we shall not feel shame."

"This book is a record of pioneer farming on the , one of the , lying a little way out from the mainland in western . Here the author and his devoted wife became the owners of an abandoned and ruinous house, and by sheer hard work, without, as the author says, any considerable bank balance to which to turn for comfort, have renovated the land with lime and basic slag, have repaired the ruined quay, have brought the garden again to life, and although their work is not yet completed, have changed the face of the land."

"December 2. MockingBird yet with us feeding on Smilax berries"

"Should I say, that the river (in this place) from shore to shore, and perhaps near half a mile above and below me, appeared to be one solid bank of fish, of various kinds, pushing through this narrow pass of San Juan's into the little lake, on their return down the river, and that the alligators were in such incredible numbers, and so close from shore to shore, that it would have easy to have walked across on their heads, had the animals been harmless? What expressions can sufficiently declare the shocking scene that for some minutes continued, whilst this mighty army of fish were forcing the pass? During this attempt, thousands, I may say hundreds of thousands, of them were caught and swallowed by the devouring alligators. I have seen an alligator take up out of the water several great fish at a time, and just squeeze them betwixt his jaws, while the tails of the great trout flapped about his eyes and lips, ere he had swallowed them. The horrid noise of their closing jaws, their plunging amidst the broken banks of fish, and rising with their prey some feet upright above the water, the floods of water and blood rushing out of their mouths, and the clouds of vapor issuing from their wide nostrils, were truly frightful."

"When in my residence in Carolina and Florida, I have seen vast flights of the house swallow (hirundo pelasgia) and bank martin (hirundo riparia) passing onward northward toward Pennsylvania, where they breed in the spring, about the middle of March, and likewise in the autumn in September or October, and large flights on their return southward. And it is observable that they always avail themselves of the advantage of high and favouralbe winds, which likewise do all birds of passage."

"The subjectivity that developed through print culture required that persons give up private identities for public identity. ... The aim of representative men like Benjamin Franklin was to produce themselves as exemplary citizen-­subjects who existed primarily in print and in relation to others who also circulated in print. ... Bartram offers a good test case through which we can trace the emergence of a mode of agency that is not equivalent to subjectivity and that developed outside the metropolitan centers associated with print culture."

"His observations of animal behavior are numerous and detailed, and his interpretations merge into a coherent system of thought. The basis of the system is the belief that nature is an emanation of a benevolent God, and that since the animal creation is a part of nature, it therefore, too, is benevolent. Consequently he becomes a champion of the right of animals to be treated humanely."

"To attempt the taking of an Ornithological Census of these islands was a favourite idea of Mr. John Wolley's; so much so, indeed, that I believe he used to regard its accomplishment as the chief requirement of British ornithology. ... Two of the expressions which have lately become very familiar to the ears of naturalists are the "Struggle for Life," and "Preservation of Favoured Races" therein. Each of these points, as it seems to me, would be greatly elucidated by the carrying-out of Mr. Wolley's idea.""

"Here is a zoological anecdote. Mr. G. X. is very ugly and hairy. He went to call at a house a few days ago and found only a little girl in the drawing-room. He began to say something civil to her but she would not answer. At last he said, "You don't know who I am!" "Yes, I do," she replied, "I gave you a bun at the Zoological Gardens last Sunday—and, you naughty man, you had no clothes on!""

"One species, L. excubitor, derives it trivial designation from the use made of it as a sentinel by falconers when catching wild Hawks. The mode employed is well described by Hoy (Mag. Nat. Hist. iv. p. 342), but it can only be briefly described here. The Hawk-catcher lies hidden in a hut, watching through a small hole the Butcher-bird which is tethered some yards off, and by its actions not only gives him notice of the approach of a Bird-of-Prey, but also indicates of what kind the stranger is. Thus the sentinel is but slightly troubled at a passing Kite, Eagle, or Buzzard; but beats itself on its perch with screams at the sight of a Harrier, while on the appearance of a Falcon or Sparrow-Hawk it drops with cries of distress into a retreat that has been been considerately prepared for it. On this the falconer, by pulling long strings, displays first one and then a second tethered Pigeon, and the instant the Hawk clutches this last, draws a bow-net over both, thus securing his prize."

"Certainly humans can be destructive and shortsighted; they can also be forward-thinking and altruistic. Time and time again, people have demonstrated that they care about what Rachel Carson called "the problem of sharing our earth with other creatures," and that they're willing to make sacrifices on those creatures' behalf. Alfred Newton described the slaughter that was occurring along the British coast; the result was the Act for the Preservation of Sea Birds..."

"Newton's conversatism is evident in everything connected with his life—his views upon most subjects, his personal habits, attire, etc., but curiously enough we find him among the first to adopt the ideas of Darwin and Wallace on evolution and one of their staunch supporters in the stormy discussions which rent the British Association in the early sixties."

"Newton's Dictionary of Birds, published in four parts by Adam & Charles Black, London, between 1893 and 1896, and as a single bulky volume in 1896 was his magnum opus (Dawson 2008), a monumental work that inspired awe and admiration from all reviewers. ... Newton's main achievements are threefold: (1) helping to initiate the British Ornithologists’ Union and its journal The Ibis, (2) promoting the conservation of birds and (3) his Dictionary of Birds."

"Young Robins commonly disperse to breed between 1 and 4 miles from their place of birth, but only 5 per cent, have been found more than 8 miles from their birth-place. Once a Robin has taken up a territory, it rarely moves more than a mile, only 3 per cent, being found 1–3 miles away and another 3 per cent, over 10 miles away."

"In Lapland, all species start breeding 1–2 months later than in Britain, and the breeding season is much less extended. As compared with Britain, the Corvidae and predatory birds of Lapland lay early relative to the small passerines, but among the small passerines, and also among the predators, the different species tend to breed in the same order relative to each other as they do in Britain."

"The limicoline species in June and July, and the passerine species in late autumn, cross the North Sea primarily with easterly winds and hardly at all with westerly winds, whereas in spring they often set out against the wind. This might merely be due to a stronger migratory urge in spring than autumn, but it also seems possible that westerly winds deter migration in autumn because they are so often associated with rain and other unfavourable conditions."

"... Female song is uncommon in birds."

"... It is uncommon among birds for the female to be as brightly coloured as the male. ... A brightly colored female would be much more dangerous for a species which nested in the open."

"... 'duetting' is uncommon in birds, but has been recorded for various tropical species."

"... many large insects come out at dusk. By doing so they escape many enemies, but not all, since here the nightjar tribe takes over, many of which are larger than the largest swifts."

"The Cambridge Bird Club published David Lack's first book, The Birds of Cambridgeshire, a year after he completed his studies at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Although it provides few hints as to the ultimate influence this British ornithologist was to have on 20th century ecology, it does contain some glimpses into a mind that was the product of a changing scientific landscape in the field of ornithology, and indeed in biology as a whole. The Birds of Cambridge is not simply a compilation of the species that had been recorded in the county. Instead, Lack devoted almost half of the book to chapters describing the major habitats in the county, observations on migration, historical changes in the county's avifauna, and the resident status of the 160 regularly occurring species. He expressly deemphasized rare and accidental species, a significant departure from the typical emphasis of ornithology at the time."

"Lack's life-long passion for birds began at an early age in the marshes of rural Norfolk. At nine, he compiled his first life list, and at fifteen he began his first bird diary, having seen exactly 100 species. These schoolboy notebooks reveal the remarkable attention to detail in field observation that distinguished his later work. In 1929, Lack went up to Cambridge, but apparently he did not enjoy his formal academic training, from biologists of the day such as Saunders, Carter and Salt. Later (Lack, 1978) he reminisced that his zoology course contained 'nothing about evolution, ecology, behavior or genetics, and of course nothing about birds'! However, he enlivened his dry undergraduate programme by running the Cambridge Bird Club and going on expeditions to places like Greenland and St Kilda."

"Believe me, if there's an animal misbehaving on this planet, I know about it."

"Birds are real. If I had to justify extreme birding, that would be my first defense. Even as we dash around in a mad quest for the biggest list of bird sightings, we are keenly attuned to reality—not just the birds but also geography, weather patterns, forest types, tide schedules, and myriad other factors, because everything in nature is connected. Other people may take up hobbies to escape reality, but birding has the opposite draw. It’s a deep dive into the real world."

"But I should have known—when the gods seem to smile, they may in fact be laughing."

"They were good-looking, too—not in the plastic Hollywood sense, but with the healthy good looks of active young women who spend time outdoors."

"The list total isn’t important, but the birds themselves are important. Every bird you see. So the list is just a frivolous incentive for birding, but the birding itself is worthwhile. It’s like a trip where the destination doesn’t have any significance except for the fact that it makes you travel. The journey is what counts."

"You had to make the effort to have the luck."

"We were talking about the insulation of human experience. We live enclosed in artificial structures with controlled climates, synthetic food, and purified water. No wonder our glimpses of the real world come as a shock."

"“Come on,” I said, feeling tired and angry. “You don’t really think that. Nobody thinks that any more, do they? How can the public image be so far off from the reality? Does everybody pay more attention to damn television than to real life?”"

"The whole thing might have been erected by a demented billionaire—which it was, I reflected, since it had been built by the U.S. government."

"The spark for a relationship might come for free—a look, a word. But the fuel to keep it going would always be expensive. Money might not buy happiness, but the lack of money could buy endless unhappiness for any two people."

"It did not matter to me what country I was in. Bird-list regions, like political regions, were just human inventions. The birds were wonderful, regardless of where you saw them. It was silly, I told myself, to be preoccupied with how a bird’s location was relative to some artificial boundary."

"One thing was becoming obvious to me now: list-chasing was not the best way to learn birds. It had been a good way to start, an incentive for getting to a lot of places and seeing a lot of species. But the lure of running up a big list made it all too tempting to simply check off a bird and run on to the next, without taking time to really get to know them."

"Perhaps my Big Year attempt had no value in itself, but it had led me to incredible places, a whole series of extraordinary destinations. It had taken me through life-changing experiences. Regardless of final list totals, it had been worthwhile. Listing, at its best, could be a wonderful quest, I reflected. We list-chasing birders, at our best, could be like knights seeking the Holy Grail—except that the birds were real, and we birders were rewarded at every turn. If we made an honest effort, the birds would come."

"The triggers for turning points in one’s life are mysterious things. A whole spectrum of different factors with complex physical, intellectual, and emotional overtones is involved, and all of them have to merge in the same place and time to form the blinding white light that urges one along a new path. Sheer chance plays an enormous role, unless one is programmed to believe (as I do not) that it was all meant to be."

"“How can they ever get food into those fuzzy chicks without stabbing them to death with their bills?” Watching those creatures do what they had been doing successfully for millions of years, without any help from us, finally let me learn not to judge everything by human standards."

"I desperately wanted to continue running my own life, because I was healthy and, physically, felt just fine. I accepted the fact that my life wasn’t going to last long, but I very quickly came to the conclusion that I preferred a short span of quality living under my control, followed by a quick death, to a longer life protracted by various all-consuming medical treatments and their effects, probably followed by a lingering death."

"Black-necked Cranes on the Tibetan plateau were my last of this family and left me with some unexpectedly ambivalent feelings—triumph at having finally seen them all, yet sadness that there were now no more left to look for."

"Chances are, if I can feel a lump, there has already been some spread to internal organs, in which case my time of health is probably limited to a few months. Now may well be my final opportunity to go birding on a foreign trip, and I can’t just throw that away. If it’s my last trip, so be it—but I’m going to make it a good one and go down binoculars in hand!"

"I hadn’t done much traveling in Arab countries, and it’s certainly not my favorite culture (a common enough viewpoint among emancipated western women), but both geographically and ornithologically I found it fascinating."

"Emotion and personal desire really do reign in all passionate endeavors, not objectivity and reason. And sometimes we’re just plain lucky enough to get away with it."

"There were indeed human hazards in this country—but not to go there at all because of the possibility of encountering them? Unthinkable! It has become ever more clear to me that if I had spent my life avoiding any and all potential risks, I would have missed doing most of the things that have comprised of the best years of my life."

"Of course, as my husband points out, this game never really ends. It’s simply a matter of perspective; as I see it, one of the wonderful aspects of birding is that it is endless. There’s always, as long as one lives, some new place to go, some exciting new thing to find. No one knowledgeable will ever say, “I’ve done it all – now what?”"

"Phoebe was a legend among the professional bird guides who guided her around the world. A non-birder may imagine that high-level birding is just like regular birding except more expensive. In reality, birding at Phoebe’s level requires an Olympian’s level of concentration, dedication, and effort, along with a level of risk-taking that no non-birder could ever understand. She had some horrific experiences along the way, but the non-fatal ones never stopped her."

"Phoebe did not hesitate for a second as she plunged off the trail and down into the thick undergrowth that filled the steep ravine. I hustled after her, and we swiftly picked our way into the darkness and unknown. In the end, the bird did not call again, and the fog was too thick, so the partridge eluded Phoebe that night. Regardless, I will never forget the wonderful time we shared. The sight of her disappearing down the ravine after the Long-billed Partridge sums up Phoebe for me—committed, fearless, and never looking back."

"Phoebe’s legacy in the world of birding is larger than life. She possessed a hard-earned, near encyclopedic knowledge of the world’s birds. Her drive to observe, and observe well, as much of the world’s avifauna as possible, with a special emphasis on its diversity, is well-known, clear from her writing, and, in some circles, the stuff of legends."

"The worlds most frequent flyers don’t have platinum status, free upgrades, or even passports. Every hour, millions of these undocumented immigrants pour across major political borders, and nobody thinks of building walls to keep them out. It would be impossible to anyway. Birds are true global citizens, free to come and go as they please."

"There is a special joy in watching an actual Scarlet Tanager instead of looking at a virtual red bird, however spectacular, on a phone screen."

"And by setting their sights on the freest creatures in the world, birders have a unique perspective about how their subjects stitch together even the furthest parts of our globe. Birds teach us that borders are just lines drawn on a map—a lesson we can all take to heart."

"I learned from reading bird books that nothing happens outside of historical context. In birding as in everything, personalities and events unfold over time, one thing leads to another, and pretty soon you wake up to discover that you are part of the stream."

"Culturally speaking, we millennials are significantly different from the baby boomers or even Generation X: we are more progressive, less religious, more educated, less family-oriented, more urban, less political, more narcissistic, less environmentally minded, and, above all, more technologically dependent. For better or worse, my generation lives on computers and smartphones; we are children of the Internet."

"For birds, Ecuador offers nothing short of a tropical paradise. Virtually every habitat is represented, from coastal deserts to snow-capped peaks to the Amazon basin, and more than 1,700 species have been recorded—16 percent of the worlds birds on less than 0.0006 percent of its land surface. For birders conditions are just as alluring: unlike neighboring Peru or Colombia, Ecuador has a long history of conservation, is relatively stable and safe, has a well-developed infrastructure, and is small enough to cover efficiently. If you want to see the most species of birds in the shortest amount of time, Ecuador is without a doubt the best place to do it. The importance of natural diversity in this tiny nation cannot be overstated. It’s even written in the constitution: Ecuador is the only country in the world to recognize “Rights of Nature”—the idea that ecosystems have inalienable rights, just like people do—at the highest legal level. “Nature, or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and occurs, has the right to integral respect for its existence,” states Article 71 of the country’s constitution, in accordance with the Ecuadorian concept of Buen Vivir, which emphasizes harmony with other people and nature above material development."

"“Don’t worry about the weather!” Kalu replied. “We can’t control it, and these days we can’t even predict it. For the past few years, the wet season has been very strange; nobody knows when the rains will come. The climate is changing here.” I had heard versions of this story in an unsettling number of places this year, and many of the birders who accompanied me had complained about unpredictable seasons. It was difficult to tease out other effects, like deforestation and overharvesting, but my view of global climate change had shifted lately after hearing enough local people talk about it. It wasn’t just something for academics and politicians to argue about; these changes were already affecting those who depended on the land and environment."

"I couldn’t keep up with the virtual world while living so large in the real world."

"That the culmination of my yearlong world tour, into which I invested all my creativity and resources, was embodied in this obscure gray bird on a nameless hillside in a remote province of India seemed perfectly appropriate. Birding is about appreciating life’s infinite details—and if subtlety is beauty, then a birder will never run short of wonder. That number 6,000 did not seem like a conquest—it felt like a fresh beginning."

"For months the Muslim minority throughout India was safe from molestation. The R.S.S., by destroying the Mahatma, had given the country the shock it needed. Those who had been angrily criticising him now saw the tragic consequences of their own short sighted anger. They knew that he had been right."

"I was stained with a stigma that would take me the rest of school to shake for this was Homophobe High, where any difference was immediately stomped upon by that most conservative of bodies – the teenage peer group."

"Birding gave me the excuse to get out into the bush, to lose my self in the wider world of nature, detox my mind of everything that was going on. Without birdwatching who knows what sort of basket case I might have ended up? My God, I could even have become a lawyer."

"Actually, I think that is part of the appeal of birdwatching for me – you come away from an encounter with a bird with absolutely nothing tangible to show for it other than the memory of the experience and maybe a tick in your notebook. You indulge in the experience merely for the nature of the experience. It is conquering without violence, hunting without the kill."

"Cool people don’t bother becoming dictators; they’re too busy getting laid."

"The Twitcher’s list is very democratic. Each bird counts as one tick. There are no extra points for beauty or rarity."

"Saying I was taking a year off to make a documentary seemed easier than saying I was spending a year birdwatching. In this society being a wanker is socially unacceptable. Filming yourself while being a wanker, however, seems perfectly legitimate."

"None of the locals I met could understand why I hadn’t immediately built on the land, the mentality being that if you weren’t putting your land to any discernible economic use then it was wasted land. Forget about aesthetics, forget about environmental values, unless you were running something on it, ploughing something into it or extracting something from it, then it was just a waste of space."

"When I hear of someone suffering a mental illness that causes them to be ridden with anxiety, socially isolated and prone to feelings of paranoia, I think, ‘yep, sounds like a twitcher to me.’"

"I could see the same look of incomprehension on her face that my parents often wore: ‘this person cannot possibly be related to me.’"

"I remembered why I liked hanging out with the top rate twitchers – they might be freaks but they were awesomely brilliant freaks."

"As I settled into the sleeping bag in the back seat of the car, I revelled in the glorious stillness of the country at night. The first night away from the city you can feel the tension almost physically draining out of you as you gaze at the achingly beautiful sky and greedily inhale the invigorating fresh scent of the country."

"That was a pivotal moment in our relationship; that adolescent catharsis when you realise your parents cannot sustain you as they once did – the moment you leave the nest."

"The wildlife follows the water."

"On one side of the retaining wall were the dank, wonderful mangroves teaming with life; on the other side, sitting on landfill, were modern houses and manicured lawns. Why is it that building the Great Aussie Dream Home invariably involves destroying other creatures’ homes?"

"Everything seemed to be falling into place perfectly. That had to be a worry."

"The countdown clock tipped through to midnight and as the fireworks exploded, people erupted in a frenzy of cheering and drunken pashing. The Big Twitch was over. I was back in the real world. Looking around this world that I had turned my back on for a year, seeing the manic desperation of those around me to have a good time no matter what, suddenly my quest didn’t seem so absurd. In fact it seem to make more sense than any of the human behaviour I saw around me."

"There are a million ways to occupy your time on this planet. They are all pretty much absurd if you analyse them too closely. I chose twitching, one of the more outwardly absurd of them all I suppose but really no more ridiculous than anything else, yet that year of absurdity has had a profound effect on my life since."

"The visitor to Oxford goes to see, amongst the wonders of that historic but by no means old-looking city, the college established there by in 1274. It boast several attractions. Besides the chapel, pre-eminent for the beauty of its Decorated English architecture, there is the founder's treasure-house, with its ashlar roof, the ancient ironwork of the hall door, and the wondrous old library in the Mob Quadrangle, where Duns Scotus succeeded in that dangerous and hazardous feat of raising the devil."

"The limestone cliff of , surrounded by sandbanks and shallows, is not so favoured by breeding birds, but the jackdaw and dove—doubtless the stock-dove—are busy about its niches in nesting time. And in autumn and winter the mud-flats of the estuaries and the sands of the bays are busy with bird life. Besides troops of gulls and oyster-catchers, and curlews, and redshanks, and dunlins, there are far-coming whimbrels, and sanderlings, and knots, as well as more rarely seen species. There are geese on the flows, and sea-duck, scaup, common scoter, wigeon and others on the tide."

"The churchyard, even more than the church itself, had its secular and popular uses, which came down from ancient time. The fairs, the markets, the sports and the wrestlings ... which took place within its enclosing walls, and of which we obtain faint intimations, were but the survival of the festivals sanctioned by the early church, when the wake, or fair of the was kept. This again, with its bull-baiting, its rude sports and its temporary stalls, may be linked on to the earlier rites of heathen times, when beasts were brought to the Temple for sacrifice, and when the people built booths about it, in which to hold a three days' feast. The annual or biennial fair, and even the Sunday market, were quite usual in the churchyard, before the boroughs obtained a special privilege for them."

"... it is impossible for us not to love whatever is lovely, and of all living things birds were made most beautiful."

"From the distance at intervals came the piercing cries of the ... sounding like bursts of hysterical laughter. ... This bird, which is about as large as a , selects a low thorny bush with stout wide-spreading branches, and in the center of it builds a domed nest of sticks, perfectly spherical and four or five feet deep. The opening is at the side near the top, and leading to it there is a narrow arched gallery resting on a horizontal branch, and about fourteen inches long. So compactly made is this enormous nest that I have found it hard to break one up. I have also stood upright on the dome and stamped on it with my boots without injuring it at all."

"The has the distinction of being the smallest British bird; it is also one of the most widely distributed, being found throughout the United Kingdom. Furthermore, it is a resident throughout the year, is nowhere scarce, and in many places is very abundant. Yet it is well known only to those who are close observers of bird life. The gold crest is not a familiar figure, owing to its smallness and restlessness, which exceed that of all the other members of this restless family of birds, and make it difficult for the observer to see it well. Again, it is nearly always concealed from sight by the foliage, and in winter it keeps mostly among the evergreens, and at all times haunts by preference pine, fir, and yew trees. In the pale light of a winter day, more especially in cloudy weather, it is hard to see the greenish, restless little creature in his deep green bush or tree. Standing under, or close to, a wide-spreading old yew, half a dozen gold crests flitting incessantly about among the foliage in the gloomy interior of the trees look less like what they are than the small flitting shadows of birds."

"July 2nd 1902 DEAR GARNETT Thanks for writing—also for " envying " me. I'm in a cloud of by day in the woods, and the result is I smart and burn and tingle and itch all night. Are these the " delights " you would like to have! But I mix myself up in the private affairs of weasels, s, squirrels, s, s, s, s, &c. &c. and I get my pleasures that way and it more than compensates me for the pain. ..."

"… A friend once confessed to me that he was always profoundly unhappy at sea during long voyages, and the reason was that his sustaining belief in a superintending Power and in immortality left him when he was on that waste of waters, which have no human associations. The feeling, so intense in his case, is known to most if not all of us; but we feel it faintly as a disquieting element in nature of which we may be but vaguely conscious."

"One can only hope … that the countryman will say to the townsman, Go on making your laws and systems of education for your own children, who will live as you do indoors; while I shall devise a different one for mine, one which will give them hard muscles and teach them to raise the and pork and cultivate the potatoes and cabbages on which we all feed."

"... The gardener is usually attended by a friendly robin, and when he turns up the soil the bird will come down close to his feet to pick up the small grubs and worms. Is it not probable that the tameness of the tame young robin so frequently met with is, like that of the robin who keeps company with the gardener or woodman, an acquired habit; that the young bird has made the discovery that when a person is moving about among the plants, picking fruit perhaps, lurking insects are disturbed at the roots and small spiders and s shaken from the leaves? We are to the robin what the cow is to the and the sheep to the —a food finder."

"... the fruit-growers remind us in each recurring spring that it would be an immense advantage to the country if the village children were given one or two holidays each in March and April, and sent out to hunt and destroy s, every wasp brought in to be paid for by a bun at the public cost. That the wasp, an eater of ripe fruit, is also for six months every year a greedy devourer of caterpillars and flies injurious to plant live, is a fact the fruit-grower ignores."

"The s which often accompany fishing s are there for anything but philanthropic purposes. They float about among the ducks keeping a sharp eye on them, and no sooner does one appear with a fish than they flap over the wretched bird's head and so harry it that, quite often, the catch is dropped and the gulls devour it."

"... All large sociable birds make noticeable preparations when about to take wing, and some of these initiating movements have no apparent usefulness so far as rising from the ground or water is concerned. ... It is of great advantage to birds which migrate in flocks, such as geese, to take flight so far as possible simultaneously, and thus range themselves without delay into orderly squadrons. Moreover, the movements serve as a quiet hint of danger to neighbors when a bird sights a suspicious object. They have, in fact, a contagious effect. Large gaggles of geese in which one or other of the birds is constantly initiating flight in this way fly up much more often than small parties."

"Some birds which feed on insects may bring food to the nest more than a thousand times in one day."

"There is nothing in Shakespeare's writings to suggest that he knew the . In his day the word "chough" was synonymous with . Looking over the Dover cliffs he might have seen jackdaws, but is not likely to have seen crows. A close study of his ornithology has convinced me that personal observation played a very minor part, while traditional symbolism and folk-lore bulked large in his imagination. Incidentally, there is no indication of a personal acquaintance with any sea-bird. He mentions the but only as the symbol of greed. For what it is worth this negative evidence suggests that, contrary to the speculations of and other writers, Shakespeare had not much knowledge of the sea."

"… bore twin children, Apollo and Artemis, who had a sanctuary in common at Troy (Il. v. 445-448). Apollo also had twins by the Cretan woman . —another form of Leto—laid two eggs after consorting with Jupiter. Out of one came , out of the other and Helena."

"Those who would follow Christ must neither be unduly frightened by what is involved, nor rush into commitments which they will be unable to fulfil."

"A rich store of Christian s appeared throughout the centuries before the time of Saint Francis, and he was by no means the first saint to show compassion for animals; but the blossoming of Christian compassion for nature in the thirteenth century and the , taken for granted by most writers, require explanation. Prior to his appearance, Italy had not been fertile in stories, true or apocryphal, telling of men and animals on friendly terms with one another, nor were Italians then any more renowned than they are now for their kindly treatment of birds and beasts. Why, then, should there have accumulated in connexion with a humble n friar a galaxy of stories of this kind?"

"... Alexander the Great was said to have been guided across the desert to the by two ravens from heaven which encouraged stragglers with their croaking."

"The , , and some s retain territory in winter and pair after occupying territory. Other species which abandon their breeding territories and flock in winter form pairs before they establish territory (Gibb 1956a)."

"On the whole, the first-rate have the most elaborate equipment. The birds with the most s and greatest ability to move the tend to produce the greatest variety of sounds."

"'s work, 'Fowles of Heaven' is primarily a treatise on European birds, but it lists seventeen American species which in various ways had become known to the author, although he never visited America. The subject of the present paper, in contrast to Topsell's account, represents work, done in America, by a painter, one , also called John With, ... who, as artist and draughtsman, accompanied Sir in 1585 on that ill-starred expedition sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh to found an Enlgish colony in America. He was chosen by Queen Elizabeth for the express purpose of studying and painting the aborigines and "natural products" of this far country. John White thus becomes the first man, so far as is known, to observe American birds in their native haunts, and to leave a pictorial record in colours of his observations."

"… all the men for whom collected, except perhaps Sir , were primarily botanists, and Catesby's main task in America was the collecting of botanical specimens. Botany was the great science of the day and zoology in all its branches had to take second place. But the fact remains that Catesby somehow managed to do a great work on birds, covering about one hundred species, first depicted in the field with each one's particular plant or tree associate, and later etched or colored by himself or under his direction in England."

"… … was chosen by , as the latter said, "to make an accurate description and map of the country and drawings of all curious objects." … Le Moyne is known also to have written an account of his stay in America. This narrative, 'Brevis Narratorio,' forms the second part of 's collection of 'Great Voyages' and was published in 1591. It is illustrated by drawings done by Le Moyne, most of which represent the Indians, their customs and ceremonies, and many depict the barbarous treatment of the Huguenots by the neighboring Catholic settlers of or Florida. But it is of particular interest to us that one of the large illustrations of the 'Brevis Narratorio' includes several figures of Wild Turkeys …, one of which is represented in full display with spread tail, dropped wings and drooping wattle. Alligators, manatees, stags and shells also are pictured in the same scene, as well as the natives' method of stalking wild animals by disguising themselves under deer hides."

"The massed flocks of wild s appealed as a ready food supply and were easily seen by incoming vessels in the harbors. Land birds, on the other hand, were shy and silent, and at the approach of man slipped without sound deeper into the forest."

"To a child, there is nothing in the world quite so important as growing up."

"She didn’t ask why I left, because that’s a silly question. I left for the same reason all people leave home. Because one day you realize that all the old habits have become too familiar. Because there is a world of discovery waiting and the first step toward the future is a step away from the past. So you leave. Go chasing rainbows, never thinking that maybe one end of a rainbow is just as good as another."

"In the free-for-all age before conservation, scientists were not the only ones “collecting” birds. Great numbers of birds were killed for sport and for market, and the myth of America’s inexhaustible resources sustained the slaughter past the point of reason."

"Very few works of art, however skillfully crafted, can approach the splendor of a living bird."

"Dawn was just getting serious. One of the rarely spoken advantages to being a birder are the number of sunrises you get to appreciate in the course of a lifetime. Most people come onto a day full blown—to a sun already high in the sky, a world already in motion, and the impossible task of catching up. They rarely see the tentative side of morning or appreciate the great struggle between light and darkness played out on a world stage. Some mornings come raging over the horizon, angry and red. Some are so subtle that the transformation of night and day seems like an afterthought. All are different and all are priceless."

"But since it was birders he was dealing with, there wasn’t any harm just letting us in on the honor system. There was no question in his mind (or ours) that we would ante up when departing. That’s just the way birders are."

"Zero impact in a fragile land. The only ethic that should be tolerated in the Arctic."

"So I came, in time, to disbelieve the Myth of Infinite because I know, now, that the resources of a continent are more finite than human greed. I discovered that freedom can be twisted, can mean that anything a person can grab is his and to hell with everyone else. I learned that the twisted freedom that allows people to destroy a place conflicts with my freedom to appreciate it and the freedom of other living things to survive."

"The bird is a mouse. A frustrating, feathered mouse, no more inclined to be seen by mortal eyes than your average leprechaun."

"Seasickness all comes down to a complicated and not terribly well thought-out balancing mechanism call the inner ear. Without a shred of supporting evidence, I believe that inner ears were eleventh-hour modifications installed in the human unit just before the model was released. It was faulty and we’re still waiting for the recall. (Knees fall into this category, too.)"

"It’s hard to recall now that this environmental beacon was once a battlefield and that there was a time when people did not understand the important role birds of prey play in maintaining natural balance. It’s difficult to believe that people’s ignorance was so complete that they thought of hawks as vermin and shot them on sight."

"They were sport gunners, too—a class spawned by wealth and leisure who carried their “sport” to tasteless Victorian excess. Both professional and the sport hunter approached the killing of “game” with zeal and the conviction that North America’s wildlife was infinite. The faith was ill-founded. Not only is a continent’s wildlife finite, but, to the shock of many, by the turn of the century much of it was gone and a lot more was going fast."

"Since Benjamin Franklin’s eloquent bad-mouthing of the bird when the time came to select a national emblem, the Bald Eagle has been an unjust target for abuse. Its taste for winter-killed fish has made it a “carrion eater.” Its talent for close-range aerial pursuit has made it a “thief.” Its penchant for sitting for long periods and not expending energy without need has made it “lazy,” and this is not fair. Only humans seem to equate frenetic activity with success. Eagles can and do sit for extended periods precisely because they are successful predators who can find food at need. Energy wasted is just that. A waste."

"Many condors were simply shot. No, they weren’t edible. No, their feathers weren’t prized adornments for ladies’ headgear. Despite their size, they posed no threat to humans or livestock. Yet there are nearly two hundred documented cases of condors that were killed for no better reason than to satisfy somebody’s perverted vanity."

"The one thing you can’t do with binoculars is look back."

"Hope is many things, but it throws itself against fact and shatters."

"The 1870s saw the awakening of a desire among scientists to become more highly organized. The influence of Huxley and Darwin among others had spread north and the tangible outcome was the botanical papers by and (1882-84) and (1898-1909). Within this upsurge of interest came the and Buckley Fauna (1888) and work on the freshwaters by Scott (1891), followed by the Bathymetrical Survey of the Scottish Freshwater Lochs by and (1910). This was perhaps the first great work of the modern scientific era in the and is still the baseline for work on freshwaters, to which little has since been added."

"The have survived for 50 years without interference by man and maintain high density on rich maritime pastures heavily manured by s. They are a obtained from a cross between old Scottish shortwool and early blackface sheep. There is a population of about 400 on about 55 of pasture and the rams and ewes (with lamb and yearling rams) run in separate groups. The survival of rams is poor compared with ewes with an adult sex-ratio of about 10 ewes to 1 ram. Numbers of sheep fluctuate between 330 and 460 without causing sheet erosion, landslipping and disruption of the vegetation. The conservation plan for Boreray rests on continued non-interference with the sheep and no sheep should be introduced to the island."

"is a culture of the twentieth century possessing its own philosophical, ethical and scientific frame which is distinct from those of agriculture, and other producer . In the latter, conservation is directed towards the creation and maintenance of the quality and quantity of the product, be it cereal, wood pulp or automobiles; in the former, nature conservation is directed towards the maintenance of numbers of different species distributed in different assemblages of natural or semi-natural type and towards the care of geological and physiographical features."

"One of Australia's least savoury wildlife episodes was the long slaughter of s for their fur, which continued in some States to the end of the 1920's. In 1924 over 2 million koala pelts were exported, many under the pseudonym of to avoid the odium of publicity."

"From time to time I get a query about an unusual waterhen people have seen. It's usually described as dark, with red legs — and a cocked tail that makes it look 'like a little '. Some say they have seen it far from water. Most agree that 'it runs like hell'. Over the years I've had more technical enquiries, but there's not the slightest doubt the bird in question in this case is that peculiarly Australian creation, the black-tailed native-hen ('), a species of small ."

"An extraordinary diversity of , , bird and fauna had developed from n ancestors. Small, sharp-fanged marsupial 'lions'; cow-sized browsing s; giant kangaroos, even a kangaroo thought by its dentition to have been carnivorous; and huge, 3-metre flightless birds were all present."

"Watching bouncing, tinkling flocks of es feeding on thistles at once, the American ornithologist Dr guessed he had seen more goldfinches there than even in Europe."

"The lawyer-ornithologist tells of removing a 's nest from a 'well-formed hollow' in a in the outer suburbs of ... Two weeks later he cleared out a 's nest from the hollow. Three weeks later he flushed a from a clutch of three eggs in the same hollow. Clearly the starling is causing losses among native birds ..."

"The late , a Sydney printer and skilled and deservedly respected ornithologist, considered the to breed rarely in in his early days (born in 1904, he died in 1971). But in later years he recorded that some birds were always present and breeding. It seems likely that, in part at least, this change reflected the planting of flowering trees and shrubs in Sydney gardens."

"Occasionally, some tropical bird may perhaps be tempted north in search of food. Among these are the lovely little yellow-breasted s, which are met with in , and, I believe, have sometimes been seen as far north as . s are visitors on the Nile, and brilliant s, too, we saw in the , going to their more Northern homes in Syria, Spain, and Italy. The low sand banks in the river, or some lonely place in the desert, are nightly chosen as resting-places for the s, which are only travellers in the land."

"The , as it is sometimes called, lives in damp woods, where it can find plenty of insects. It catches them on the wing, as well as picking them off plants and trees. Its colouring is grey above with black streaks on its head; its breast is yellow, with a row of black marks across it, set like a ’s . Its song is louder than that of most s, but very sweet and clear."

"There are curious remains near Cairo of a , where portions of trees have been found measuring 60 to 90 feet in length and 3 feet in diameter. It is said to have been formed by a deposit of sand and water which in the course of ages petrified the wood. But although there is little doubt that primeval forests existed in Egypt, they must have disappeared at a very early date, as no special mention of them occurs, either in the oldest monuments or writings."

"The Egyptians possessed much interesting literature, of which poetry formed an important part. The hymns to , , and , and that of , are all beautiful specimens; and so, likewise, is the epic poem to , known as the ".""

"The may easily be mistaken for a male in flight. They are identical in size and are similarly barred below. The illusion is often fostered in late summer by young cuckoos being seen in flight with their foster-parents, much smaller birds ..."

"One of the areas whose birds have been given rather less attention than most is the arid western regions of South Africa. For various reasons it has been, and still is, an inhospitable country, in spite of the kindly disposition of its thinly scattered population. Its political history, at times somewhat turbulent; its desolate and fog-bound coastline, now made doubly inapproachable because of protective measures against illicit diamond prospecting; its vast hinterland of and ; and its own arid mountains and plains have discouraged travellers and ornithological pursuits. Although the birds of this region have been studied relatively infrequently most of the species represented have been known for a long time. The first ornithological survey of any importance took place as early as 1783-5 when the French naturalist, , made his second great journey ‘into the interior parts of Africa from the ’."

"If you are fortunate to have the chance to examine a recently dead bird, even one brought home from the poulterer with intact, spend a little time examining the s carefully and note down various points of interest."

"Horny projections which look more like teeth are found in the beaks of a special group of ducks represented in Britain by and , sometimes known as "sawbills". In these birds the beak is narrow and the "teeth" are used for gripping fish."

"Macdonald selects twelve aspects of the life and behaviour of birds, illustrating them with Australian examples. Topics covered are Territorial Behaviour, , Population Problems, Post-Breeding Activities, , Distribution, Habitats and Adaptations, , Other Important Features, Various Systems, the Senses, and Variation and . The level of detail on each subject is well suited to the intended audience and avoids both superficiality and excessive detail. Indeed, beginners are far from the only birdwatchers who would profit from reading this book. The list of references, although short, is useful and reasonably comprehensive and would give the interested reader a useful introduction to the literature on a particular topic."

"When appointed to the in 1935 he was placed in the Bird Room, where he started as Assistant Keeper and retired in 1968 as Senior Scientific Officer in charge of the Bird Room and Deputy Keeper of the Zoology Department. Apart from war service with the , his entire career was dedicated to traditional museum ornithology. He ran collecting expeditions to South Sudan in 1938–1939 and South West Africa in 1950–1951, each substantially enhancing African collections in the Museum; that led to publication of a comprehensive report on the birds of the region. ... His professional career culminated in a sponsored mostly by Major Harold Hall, an Australian philanthropist. That was the last systematic collecting of Australian birds by an overseas institute, collecting in all parts of the continent and enriching the British Museum collection of Australian birds by some 6,500 specimens (skins, skeletons, and fluid). The leader of the first expedition in 1962–1963, Jim’s party discovered a new species of bird () in . In that expedition, his wife Betty accompanied him as doctor and caterer for the team."

"Hawaiian Islands, Max 2.4 ... ... May be discoloured reddish or greenish by algal growth. • Foreflippers proportionately very short and broad with small claws; hindflippers long and slim."

"In Israel, the 1980s and early 1990s were marked by a core of c.15 young , among them Y. Baser, A. Ber, A. Ben Dov, E. Dovrat, Y. Golan, O. Horin, R. Mizrachi, E. Shochat and myself. From a European perspective, activity mostly centred on the migration hotspot of in the south, to which thousands of birders flocked each spring. The Eilat International Birdwatching Centre was founded in 1984, but prior to that the above-mentioned observers made casual visits to Eilat, mainly between summer and winter, especially to study and to find s."

"This impressive book is an invaluable, fully illustrated, wildlife guide for tourists and scientists visiting the and . ... ... The individual species accounts are preceded by a general account of groups of related species, such as s, es,etc. Species identification is aided by beautiful colour plates (35 in total) by the wildlife artist Brett Jarrett, as well as accompanying colour photographs of high quality. The whole book is actually packed with excellent colour photographs (almost 600) of birds, s and landscapes. A distribution map is presented for most species."

"' Linnaeus. Mallard.—This is the predominant duck of the region, but it has only slight numerical superiority over the . Mallards were omnipresentin the waters of the entire territory, often varying only slightly in relative abundance from one lake to another. In only a few lakes were its numbers surpassed by any other species of ducks. In relation to all other ducks, its ratio varied from as low as 11 per cent to as high as 42, the average for 32 lakes being 26.3 per cent."

"After June 20, morning temperatures were between 45 and 50 degrees and slightly higher some days. The highest temperature in June was on the 27th, 60 degrees at eight in the morning. The mid-day temperatures average about 5 degrees higher. Insects were countless by latter part of June. Butterflies of several species, bumblebees, spiders, several species of gnat, flies, and mosquitoes were common. The end of June was characterized by rapidly melting snow, nesting activities of the birds, and the quick development of vegetation, Grasses, in particular, made fast headway in moist depressions. Actual bloom was not particularly noteworthy until early July. On June 28 the white heather, ', began sparingly to bloom. On June 30 the mountain avens, ', and the Arctic blueberry, ', suddenly burst into bloom. The Arctic Labrador tea, ', was just on the point of bloom on June 30. The last snowstorm of the season occurred on June 17 and the first rain the following day."

"The food of the chiefly consists of , especially the plentiful, widely distributed . These are caught by waiting their appearance at breathing holes in the ice, by crouching at the edges of floes, or by creeping up to the animal as it sleeps on the ice. The Eskimo assert that the polar bear also catches seals and young by seizing them in the water, from underneath, and dragging them onto an ice pan."

"The lives largely on s throughout the year. These they easily catch during the summer. In winter they dig through the snow for them or catch them as they wander on the surface. may constitute part of the diet and, rarely, the , especially the young. In winter, foxes are often very thin, thus indicating their difficulty of making a living during the season."

"This is an almost unique case of how a can be endangered by trade without specific demand. It was literally unknown in until only five years ago. There was always a local trade, within the and islands, the only places where it occurs. These islands form a chain from northern to in the Philippines. Then suddenly, hundreds of birds were captured and exported. In 1992 about 1,000 were captured, at least 700 of which were exported. In that year, at least 200 died from disease and neglect at the premises of one dealer in Jakarta. I saw dozens crowded together in the cages of a dealer in Singapore. This would have been appalling whatever the species."

"Parrots were not designed to live in houses. They are noisy and destructive and suffer probably more than any other animal when kept in an unstimulating environment. They need constant interaction, either with a human or another parrot, to keep them happy and healthy. Keeping a parrot is so much more demanding than keeping a dog or cat. Alas, the fact that many owners have failed, and failed miserably, is evidenced in the growing number of parrot refuges. They are filled with feather-plucked or phobic parrots whose former owners had no idea of their emotional needs."

"Parent-rearing keeps the pairs occupied for weeks or months, according to the species. They need the occupation. Rearing reduces the monotony of the days and weeks and years which have little to distinguish them. Boredom and lack of stimulation is a very real problem for the more intelligent species. Many s enjoy family life and most "owners" obtain a lot of enjoyment from seeing family groups in an . (And I do mean an aviary and not a little suspended cage where close confinement can result in aggressive encounters.)"

"... Colombia has one of the highest, if not the highest, number of bird species within its shores of any country worldwide: currently believed to be 1,875 (Compare that with just over 300 species found in the UK!). This high number is attributable to its unique location and to its . It is the only country in that has an Atlantic and a Pacific coast and it is also unique in stretching from to the . Three mountain ranges of the magnificent occupy the western part of the country; in the east the habitats vary from lush and flat s to sandy desert. Given this variety of s, it is not surprising that Colombia has the second or third highest number of parrot species worldwide, a total of 52. This is exceeded by Brazil with about 72 species and possibly by Australia with 52 or 53 species. (These numbers could be revised at any time as DNA research often indicates that a particular species is, in fact, two species.) There is a sad statistic connected with Colombia's 50 plus parrot species: at least 12 are in imminent danger of extinction."

"I can't emphasize enough how important parent-rearing is, because by hand-rearing we are denying s their birthright unless it is possible to wean them with ... other birds of their own species."

"Even on the train we began to feel the grateful influence of restful country life. From the windows we watched the , the wayside flowers, and the , engaged in the surprising occupation of following the plow. At our station, a sang his sweet strain from a telegraph pole; we could hear s calling from the marshes. We took the only wagon that met the train, and drove through the village. It was a typical Mormon village, one of a line of closely connected settlements running along the valley between the and the ."

"New Mexico has the distinction of being the first State in the Union from which bird notes were recorded by white men. These notes refer to birds seen on the in 1540, three hundred and eighty-eight years ago, eighty-two years before the first recorded birds were seen in New England (see 's New English Canaan, printed in 1637). The actual study of the birds of New Mexico has attracted naturalists from the the days of the earliest explorations that crossed parts of New Mexico, the first records being made on the . ... The systematic survey of New Mexico was definitely undertaken in 1903, under the direction of , then Chief of the Biological Survey; and , who had just completed a survey of the adjoining State of Texas, .. was put in charge of the work."

"The amazing views of the naturally dominate and absorb the attention of the hurried visitor to the canyon rims, but between views the bird-minded may hear arresting songs and cath glimpses of feathered passers-by that will add intimate pleasures to the memories of the "great abyss." After a night in the familiar song of the may be heard on awakening, followed by the happy song of the rosy well associated with the sunshine of the Southwest. Then perhaps will come the coarse croak of the , adding a grateful bass note to the ."

"A tribute to Florence Merriam Bailey (1863-1948), a passionate ornithologist who revolutionized the way scientists and general nature lovers study birds. Keating introduces Florence as a child who was delighted to sit patiently in the woods to watch birds and take careful notes on their features and behavior. As an adult, she is outraged by the fashion of and killing birds in order to study them. She popularized bird watching and promoted protective legislation. She turned her years of note taking into field guides for professionals and the general public alike."

"The can readily be distinguisedh from the true wild Swans, the and the , for it arches its neck much more and its bill is reddish orange with a protruding black knob at the base ..."

"Wrens do not appear to indulge to any great extent, though they appreciate drinking water. It should be remembered that if birds have plenty to drink in summer they are less likely to make attacks on fruit."

"At the time the was formed the main interest in birds lay in whether they or their eggs were good to eat, or in their possibilities as a source of amusement at which to blaze off a gun."

"On 3rd December, 1958, ten calves were killed on the North Wamses, a small island some three miles off the north coast. This was the first licensed killing of grey seals during the breeding season since the passing of the 1932 Grey Seals Protection Act and it was intended to be the first stage of an experimental annual cull of 300 calves, recommended as a means of reducing the grey seal population of the and thereby lessening the damage done by seals to the salmon fishing industry."

"These youngsters appear to have little fear of man for Jack Shiel tells the story of how, on a day in late autumn when they were line fishing for , a young kept helping himself to the best fish while the men were taking the others from the hooks."

"To-day, although numbers of s are still taken—in addition to the some 30,000 yearlings of the are killed each year—the decrease in the number of whales, and the increasing demand for edible oil has meant a growing emphasis on the exploitation of seals for oil."

"In 1949 Grace and Ian Telfer, an member, decided to mark in an attempt to follow their movements. Though s are resident on the , nothing was known about them outside the breeding season. The first seals were tagged in 1951, and within fifteen days the first marked seal was recovered in Norway. This was ground breaking research as no one had realised how far the Grey Seals were traveling."

"The collection of down from the nests of s was a common practice among Eskimos and, in Iceland, the wild Eider Duck is farmed. In the early 1960s there were about 200 Eider farms in Iceland holding some 250,000 nesting females, each producing an average of 19 g. of cleaned down."

"The is perhaps the evolutionary link between the , and the . The Mallard has been domesticated for over 2,500 years. the Romans initiated the process in Europe, and the Malays in Asia."

"Man's interest in consuming , as well as in using their feathers for warmth and their fat for lighting and heating, was behind their early domestication. Two goose species were involved, the and the , and two ducks, the and the . Features of all wildfowl domestication include large size, a reduced number of tail and wing feathers, flightlessness, rapid maturation, an increased clutch size, long breeding season, loss of 'broodiness' (so that the technique of artificial incubation becomes necessary at an early stage), loss of aggression, a polygamous mating system, and the laying down of abdominal fat."

"Kear was instrumental in efforts to save the — from extinction. Over-exploitation and the introduction of the predatory to the had reduced an estimated 18th-century population of 25,000 to less than 30 by 1949. Three birds taken into captivity and sent to the WWT's , , headquarters formed the basis of a captive breeding programme. Thus were 200 reintroduced to Hawaii by the WWT during the 1960s, and more than 2,200 by the early 1990s. In the late 1970s, she moved from Slimbridge to become curator of in the north-west, making her the first woman in charge of a regional centre. She developed it into one of the most important in the WWT chain. It now attracts up to 20,000 and 1,300 s each winter, with large numbers of people enjoying the spectacle."

"A maximum of 140 species of birds can be seen more-or-less regularly each year in interior Alaska. Of these species, however, only 28 can be considered regular winter residents, including two hawks, six s, five owls, four s, and eleven s ..."

"Most s leave the during September and October (Hunt et al. 1981b), but stragglers have been recorded as far north as as late as any water exists, even to mid-November ( and 1959)."

"Young s are unable to fly when they leave the nest; they fall and flutter to the water below and swim immediately ..."

"The author takes a ian approach to identifying the major environmental factors that help define the species-specific niches of birds in Alaska. In her study, she censused breeding birds on twelve 10- plots selected to represent fairly homogeneous tracts of each of the major s described for Alaska's taiga."

"! The old enmities imprinted into my mind by hearsay and history lessons were not so easily eradicated. Russia, the massive land in the east, always in search of outlets to the sea, of land and more land to satisfy its gluttonous cravings for own its own purported security, a ruthless giant dangerously dwarfing its smaller neighbors. Nonetheless, soon after New Year I took the train south and on a dull wintry afternoon arrived in , the camp for Russian prisoners of war."

"My station is in the heart of the breeding grounds for the majority of the Eastern North-American s. Except for a few, such as the and the which breed in , most of their s come to an end in this Canadian zone. My traps stand in the midst of the woods surrounding my house, their locations carefully chosen according to season and the species expected to be visiting them."

"The huge, forward-projecting of the male is his chief sexual characteristic and white skin aournd the eye is a peculiarity of the female. Many African s have brightly colored patches of skin and wattles about the head and neck."

"... in the north are as wary as . They make a low pecking, the blows coming slowly, when excavating in rotting logs and trunks. It is these sounds that I follow in trying for a view of their activities. They someties work on large s and s, digging into the where have their galleries."

"When I began studying birds at age fourteen, I was fortunate in having 's Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America and 's Birds of Massachusetts and other New England States, the three volumes of which were then just coming out. I remember carrying Chapman's handbook with me into the woods and sitting on a stump to identify a beautiful bird I had seen—yellow on the belly with a black bib, and bright red on throat and crown—a ! I had made a discovery by myself. If I have carried my boyhood enthusiasm for learning about birds into old age, it is in part because by interest has never been dulled by too many classes, lectures, workshops, meetings, or other experiences that can kill initiative. It is better to learn ten birds on one's own than several hundred following a leader. Learning on one's own is especially important if you want to make discoveries. ... Watching birds and other animals for enjoyment should be something that makes us think."

"During my first year at Harvard, in 1928, I became fascinated with the university's Museum of Comparative Zoology. How exciting for a mere freshman to meet and talk to such famous ornithologists as . ... In succeeding years Griscom, aided by , who was just bringing out his first bird guide, became the great figure who built up the type of —pretty much limited to finding rarities, listing species seen, and census taking—that has now become a national pastime. I remember arguments about this new approach to birding back then. The clincher for the Grissom-Peterson type of birding was that it was competitive. ... By the time I was a junior at Harvard I found my interest in this type of birding wearing thin."

"We walked lonely es and s, and we delighted in and s, but we made no great lists. Books that I like at the time were books written by observers, people doing the kind of that I wanted to do; books such as Henry Beston's and 's Beach Grass. They exemplified an idea type of natural history: you lived within walking distance of a beach, marsh, woods, or mountain and started observing."

"Professionally Lawrence Kilham is a who teaches at , but he is widely known for his papers on bird behavior, particularly those dealing with s. Never Enough of Nature is a personal account of the experiences with wild and captive animals that provided data for many of the scientific papers. The book was illustrated by the author's relatives, primarily his wife, Jane. The early chapters of the book deal with field experiences in South Carolina and Georgia, but others take the reader to Africa, Panama, and New England."

"The chapters of this book present a sampling from his lifetime of behavior watching, the s liberally salted with philosophy and quotes from past and present nature watchers. Kilham strongly believes that great satisfaction can be derived from sitting in one place and learning about in depth. He always prefers to be unobtrustive in his watching and never, for example, has . He suggests that it is best to learn about a bird first hand and then read about it. ... ... Kilham writes well and is obviously a very experienced and keen observer of nature. If you are a behavior watcher you will love this book. If you are not, you probably ought to read it anyway. It may stimulate some new interests and in the long run increase the pleasure you get from birds."

"In teaching our child the English language, we talked to her as an adult except that our words were simple and concrete. In general our practice has been not to correct her mistakes, trusting to the force of good example. As much as possible we have tried to have her words stand for real things; for instance, we took her to see pigs and bears and skunks, so that she would not get her conceptions merely from stories, pictures and s. Finally we make an effort to avoid the dead level of too simple language by at times dealing with familiar situations in new words."

"The concept of territory proves to be as old as the science of ornithology, since Aristotle was the first writer to mention it. This was pointed out by Lack (Condor, 46, 1944:108) who, however, did not follow the subsequent history of these observations. ... It was Aristotle, then, who declared that eagles partition out the land according to their needs for food, and this statement was incorporated into the books of Pliny, (in regard to ), Albertus Magnus (transferred to vultures), , , and Buffon."

"Each spring the drowsy trill of the called us and armed with pails and strainers and home-made nets, off we started to the nearby railroad . Here we found treasures: strings of toad eggs, s big and little, sedate s (which we believed were lizards), and alluring s, drab , and most tempting of all, . Caddis flies had fascinated me ever since I had read about them Charles Kingsley's (1863), and it was wonderful to find that these almost mythical creatures of English brooks were our neighbors here in our own waters."

"The most cherished of my life came in 1895 — 's Bird-Craft (1895). For the first time, I had coloured bird pictures. Many of these were adapted from Audubon's (1827); single birds, or occasionally a pair, sometimes in surprising attitudes, were depicted. In later years, when looking at the reproductions of Audubon's original plates, every now and then a picture has given me a little tug at the heart, recalling my childhood years of eager search. The simple descriptions, the charming discussions, the enthusiastic introductory chapters of Bird-Craft — all these I pored over and all but learned by heart."

"Ornithological Margaret Morse Nice (1883–1974) changed the course of American through her two pioneering field studies in 1937 and 1943 on the . Although students of understand her importance, few general readers recognize her name, much less significance. There are many reasons this omission should be remedied: her outstanding professional accomplishments, her ability to balance family and career, her management of gender issues, and her work in conservation, preservation, and the ."

"Because of its quiet tints, the beauty of plumage of the is often underrated. Nothing can be more attractive than the soft cinnamon browns of his back and wings, and the satiny white of breast and under parts, tinged in places with buff, and decorated profusely with lance-shaped spots of brown. Lovers of birds alive and free have reason to rejoice that our most interesting birds are not gaudy in coloring. The indiscriminate and terrible , is surely enough to make the most long-suffering lover of nature cry out in grief and pain. To me — let me say it frankly — they look not like an adornment of feathers, but like the dead bodies of birds, foully murdered to minister to a passing fashion."

"Also I should like to explain how a lover of free birds can endure to keep them in confinement. Each inhabitant of a in my house has been liberated from the positive discomforts of a , and besides the wearied effort to make their lives happy and as free as possible in a room, the moment one shows a desire for the world outside my windows, he is gladly allowed to depart."

"So long as you do only what you have done every day, though it be to sit within three feet of their nest, most birds accept you as a , but if you vary from your usual programme you shall have every bird within sight and hearing excited, calling in warning tones, anxious and angry "phit's," "tut's," and "chack's" on every side."

"The solo of the differs from nearly all other bird-songs that I know, being a clear, distinct whistle that may easily be reduced to our musical scale, and perfectly imitated by the human voice; in this latter quality it is almost unique. The notes are very few, usually two, never, I think, more than three; and the little ditty consists of, first, a single long, deliberate note, then two short repetitious of one a third higher, followed by three triplets at the same pitch. It is so distinct, indeed, that the of northern Minnesota—as a traveler in that country kindly wrote me—have put it into words, namely, "Pu'orn chiman, chig-a-big, chig-a-big, chig-a-big," which being translated means, "The Sioux canoes are close to shore, close to shore, close to shore," and the friendly bird is held in much esteem by the grateful Chippewas."

"A lady who has given us some charming books of minute and faithful studies of birds and beasts, Mrs. Effie Bignell, says of the two robins who were free in her house, that they were entirely different in every characteristic, one of them loving and gentle "like a perfect gentleman," while the other was greed itself, with shocking table manners, and in every way different."

"Mrs. Irene Grosvenor Wheelock, author of several books, and a careful student of living birds in the nest, has found decided individuality in young bluebirds as early as ten days old. One would be gentle, easily pacified, and trustful, while another was fierce and resentful of captivity."

"Written under the pen name Olive Thorne Miller, most of her children's fiction has been forgotten, but her , both for children and adults, are still read. She became interested in bird watching in 1880 and avidly pursued this hobby for the rest of her life. ... Olive Thorne Miller wrote books on birds that reflected a close observation of their habits. Although her treatment was sometimes , most of her facts were accurate, and her works were useful in stimulating popular interest in ."