William Young - The Fascination of Birds: From the Albatross to the Yellowthroat

From the Albatross to the Yellowthroat

William Young

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Mineola, New York

Copyright

Copyright 2014 by William Young
All rights reserved.

Bibliographical Note

The Fascination of Birds: From the Albatross to the Yellowthroat is a new work, first published by Dover Publications, Inc., in 2014.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Young, William, 1952 author.

The fascination of birds : from the albatross to the yellowthroat / William Young.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN-13: 978-0-486-78293-5

1. BirdsMiscellanea. I. Title.

QL699.Y68 2014

598dc23

2013050361

Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation
49278801 2014
www.doverpublications.com

Dedicated to
Gemma Radko

Im probably the only person to own a birding magazine signed by the noted sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer. In 1996, I went to the National Gallery of Art in Washington and noticed Dr. Ruth waiting in line to enter an exhibition of the paintings of Johannes Vermeer. I thought it would be fun to get her autograph, but all I had for her to sign was the birding magazine I had brought to read on the subway. Dr. Ruth was as pleasant and gracious in real life as she was on television. When I handed her the magazine, she asked what it was. I told her about my love for birds, and she signed the title page Dr. Ruth Westheimer, with a squiggle underneath. I thanked her, and as I was leaving, she said in her wonderful manner that stresses every word, KEEP WATCHING BIRDS!

Birds have been much loved throughout human history and have been prominent in culture, folklore, and literature. The ancient Romans tried to predict the future by looking for omens in the flight patterns and feeding habits of birds. A person entrusted with reading such omens was called an auspex (or auspice), which is derived from avis, meaning bird, and specere, meaning to look at. The omens seen by the auspex were called auspices, a word used today to suggest protection or support, as in the expression under the auspices of. The Romans felt confident about pursuing activities under positive auspices. In Coined by Shakespeare, Jeffrey McQuain and Stanley Malless point out that in Shakespeares poem The Rape of Lucrece, the word auspicious was used for the first time. Shakespeare made positive auspices into an adjective meaning favorable.

Birds fascinate people for many reasons. While the ability of birds to fly is not unique in the animal world, humans consider bird flight more beautiful and inspiring than the flight of insects or bats. Some birds have beautiful plumage. Some behave in entertaining ways. Some sing beautifullymany bird hobbyists prefer to be called birders rather than birdwatchers, in part because the activity involves listening to birdsong as well as looking at plumage. Birds provide links with people in other countries and other eras. An Osprey or Peregrine Falcon I see in the United States is the same species people see in Europe, Asia, and Australia. The jealous swan mentioned in a Chaucer poem from the fourteenth century is probably the same species that I have seen in twenty-first-century America.

Many millions of people in the United States and other parts of the world have a recreational interest in birds. The level of interest ranges from beginners who hang feeders in their yard to enthusiasts who buy expensive optical equipment and take expeditions to remote corners of the planet to seek unusual birds. Since grade school, I have devoted a substantial portion of my life to trying to understand the behavior of birds, their role in nature, and their relationship to humans. I spend many hours studying the birdlife near my home in Northern Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. Birds also have drawn me to many far-flung places throughout North America and other continents.

When studying birds, the sky is the limit, both literally and figuratively. You can discover connections between birds and an almost limitless range of subjects, such as biology, ecology, literature, music, history, politics, economics, religion, geography, physics, chemistry, linguistics, the visual arts, the performing arts, sports, and comedy. For instance, you can learn how cuckoos have a link with marital infidelity, your tailbone, and the hook em Horns gesture used by fans of the University of Texas football team. You can find out why terms such as cocker spaniel and sniper are connected to people who hunt birds. You can develop a better understanding of the countless bird references that appear in literature. And you might come across surprising bits of musical information, such as the unpleasant meaning of the lyrics to the French song Alouette or how the Beatles song Blackbird is thought to have been an inspiration for the murders committed by Charles Manson.

The illustrations in this book come from The Birds of America by John James Audubon, who lived from 1785 to 1851. Audubon is Americas most famous wildlife artist and is now considered to be the patron saint of American birds. Not all of the birds I mention in the following essays are seen in America or have an accompanying illustration. For those not illustrated, you can find many photographs for almost every species on the Internet.

Unlike bird books that are designed to be carried into the field to aid in identification, The Fascination of Birds is written to be enjoyed at home. The essays are arranged in alphabetical order by type of bird, from the albatross to the yellowthroat, and each essay has a subtitle about a context in which the bird is discussed. No previous knowledge of birds is necessary to understand the text. The book might help beginners to better understand the birds they see and the avian references they encounter. It might help experienced birders to learn more about many ornithological and nonornithological aspects of birds.

The Fascination of Birds will help all types of readers learn something about the wonders and variety of the birds with whom we share the planet. I hope that what I have written will cause people to develop a stronger love for these remarkable creatures and to understand why so many people have been fascinated by them. Dr. Ruth, who knows a lot about love relationships, has offered sound adviceKEEP WATCHING BIRDS! If you do what Dr. Ruth suggests, the results could be auspicious.

In a 1970 skit on Monty Pythons Flying Circus, John Cleese dresses as an ice cream lady in a cinema and tries to sell a huge seabird to the filmgoers. He walks down the aisle yelling, Albatross! When asked what flavor it is, he replies, Its a bloody sea bird.... Its not any bloody flavor.

A more famous albatross appears in Samuel Taylor Coleridges poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The mariner tells a long story to a wedding guest, causing both of them to miss the wedding. Sailors considered the albatross a good omen, and the mariner caused an uproar on his ship when he shot one. Shortly after the shooting, the wind stopped, stranding the ship at sea. Coleridge then wrote the famous line: Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink. The superstitious crew blamed the mariner for the bad luck, and he utters the lines that led to the expression about having an albatross around your neck:

Ah wel-a-day! what evil looks

Had I from old and young!

Instead of the cross, the Albatross

About my neck was hung.