Man and Birds. R. K. Murton

      

COPYRIGHT

      William Collins

       An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF WilliamCollinsBooks.com

      This eBook edition published by William Collins in 2018

      © R. K Murton R. K. Murton asserts his moral rights to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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      Source ISBN 9780007308323

      Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2019 ISBN: 9780007403691

      Version: 2019-01-09

DEDICATION

      TO MY PARENTS

      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter 1: Men and Birds

Chapter 2: Ecological Considerations

Chapter 3: Some Predators and Their Prey

       Chapter 4: Birds and Forests

       Chapter 5: Birds on the Farm: The Community

       Chapter 6: Birds on the Farm: The Animal Feeders

       Chapter 7: Birds on the Farm: The Seed-Eaters

       Chapter 8: Birds on the Farm: The Grazers

       Chapter 9: Bird Problems in Horticulture

       Chapter 10: Birds and the Fisherman

       Chapter 11: Birds and Industrial Man

       Chapter 12: Wild Life Management

       Tables

       Footnotes

       Bibliography

       Index

       About the Publisher

CHAPTER 1

       MEN AND BIRDS

      WE can only speculate on the impact of the stone-age hunters of Europe on birds: they must have had some effect at least on those species which were easy to catch. Certainly the larger mammals seem to have felt the pressure of man the hunter as long ago as the Pleistocene. Using molar tooth remains, Soergel has calculated the ages of Pleistocene elephants found at sites where either Heidelberg or Neanderthal man was present and at comparable sites where no human remains were found. In each case the age structure of the elephant population is much lower where man abided, suggesting that he was cropping the populations sufficiently heavily to increase the need for a high rate of replacement by young animals. Some indication of the importance of birds to these ancient hunters may be gleaned from the cave drawings at Lascaux, France. Fisher and Peterson give good reason for believing that they depict a fauna existing in a warm inter-glacial, 100,000 years ago. Flamingo, spoonbill, geese, crane, eagle and raven are all shown, together with a dead hunter wearing a bird mask and sporting a hunting stick adorned with birds.

      The earliest indications of man’s interest in cereal culture date back in the Near East to about 8,000 BC. Remains of sickles, pestle and mortar have been found in mesolithic caves of Palestine, and arable farming had reached an advanced stage in the Near East by 3000 BC. This later neolithic culture did not spread to Britain until around 2000 BC and throughout the early and middle bronze ages men were still very much hunters rather than pastoralists, living a semi-nomadic life. Settlement brought man a new relationship with birds, because instead of loose contacts during hunting expeditions, conditions now existed for confining wild creatures and breeding them in captivity, leading to selective breeding and domestication. It is probably no coincidence, as the late F. E. Zeuner points out, that all the important domesticated birds are seed-eaters (pigeons and fowl), grazers or vegetable-eaters (geese and ducks), which could have gained an early association with man through their croprobbing habits. Hence, the first use of birds was as a direct food substitute, their value as egg-producers and for pleasure and sport was not exploited until later. Nonetheless, as early as the Iron Age, in the Hallstatt culture which flourished on the Austrian shores of Lake Constance, there is evidence in the form of a crude carving that man had established a ritualistic link with what was probably a goose. The goose-herd survives as an important element in the rural economy of the Balkans today.

      The ancient Greeks and Egyptians had domesticated grey-lag geese, and according to the Odyssey, Penelope owned twenty. Aesop’s fable of the goose laying golden eggs symbolises the wealth enjoyed by these early farmers, by their counterparts the swan-owners of medieval England and the present-day turkey farmers. Furthermore, just as the modern broiler or battery industry is concerned with the most efficient conversion of vegetable food into protein, a fifth dynasty relief depicts captive geese being forcibly stuffed with food – perhaps these Egyptians were already enjoying pâté de foie gras. In Britain, domestic fowl were doubtless kept before the arrival of the Romans, but little information exists until 1578 when Bishop Leslie describes how the birds were caught in nets when moulting, to be pinioned and tamed; at this time the grey-lag was a common breeder in the English fens.

      Evidence of the domestication of rock doves goes back to 4500 BC in ancient Iraq, and it is possible that neolithic man had learned how to breed the species in captivity. Early inhabitants of Britain farmed the doo-caves, erecting extra ledges to facilitate the collection of the young, which were then used immediately or reared for breeding. The Norman lords had their dove-cotes, and the practice flourished in rural communities. Domestic fowl, which were probably kept in India as early as 3200 BC, were also associated with religious and sacrificial functions. The evolution of both the rock dove and fowl (and as will be mentioned below the house sparrow too) likely occurred in close association with the emergence of man, making