Man and Birds. R. K. Murton
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to domestication. Indeed, it is conceivable that these species would not have evolved in the absence of man the pastoralist. Recent studies by Collias and Saichuae of the jungle fowl Gallus gallus, the ancestor of the domestic fowl, in Thailand and Malaya, show that it depends on the man-altered habitat produced as a consequence of the cut, slash and burn type of shifting native husbandry. The bird thrives in the secondary scrub eventually produced when man moves elsewhere, and it seems to be poorly adapted to virgin forest. Furthermore, the behavioural patterns of these jungle fowl are virtually identical with those exhibited by domestic strains so that years of selective breeding have achieved relatively little modification in the species-characteristic behaviour.
A painting on the tomb of Haremhab at Thebes in the days of Thothmes IV (1420–11 BC) shows how men kept pelicans in enclosures and collected their eggs for food. Iron Age Glastonbury was less sophisticated, although pelicans and various other birds were caught and eaten by the local inhabitants. We have no idea why the pelican (Dalmatian Pelican) became extinct in Britain between then and the Dark Ages, and if we blame hunting man we have to explain why another great delicacy – the crane – managed to survive until about 1590. Bearing in mind the considerable changes in bird distribution which resulted from the improvement in climate from the late nineteenth century to about 1950, we may hazard a guess that climatic fluctuations also caused important faunal changes in these early years. Pelicans were still nesting in western Europe in the estuaries of the Scheldt, Rhine and Elbe in Pliny’s time. The Dalmatian Pelican belongs to a group of birds which formerly lived on the edge of the Sarmatic inland sea which in Pleistocene times covered much of central Europe, and most of the typical members of this fauna are now relic species, (marbled duck, red-crested pochard, Mediterranean black-headed gull). The doom of these species could well have resulted mainly from the increasing desiccation which followed the wet Atlantic period; although there have been many ups and downs since, the process continues and the remaining strongholds of these birds are vanishing, as the lakes of the Asiatic steppes dry up.
One of these climatic fluctuations led, around 500 BC, to a much wetter period and probably gave an indirect boost to agriculture: Trow-Smith suggests that the resultant growth of scrub on the lighter cultivated soils forced the Celtic immigrants of the late Bronze Age to attend to the heavier lands, and stimulated the invention of the first early plough, the aratrum. Thus the irregular plots of neolithic farmers were replaced by straight furrows and the rectangular Celtic fields. Later, Belgic immigrants in about 75 BC brought the heavy plough caruca which resulted in the long Belgic strip cultivation, the precursor of the medieval system, and opened up land too intractable for the prehistoric plough. The Roman occupation extended the scope of agriculture but did little to improve techniques and it seems unlikely that these peoples did much to affect significantly our forest wild life. The population at this time was probably around a quarter million and very much concentrated in south-east England and East Anglia. The Romans, however, with their dykes and causeways did start the settlement of the Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire fens. Land development was hindered by the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, although they continued the drainage of marshes and used them as sheep pasturage. The process was in full swing between 1150 and 1300 and eventually led to the loss of the larger fenland species. The crane disappeared in about 1590, though the spoonbill hung on until 1667 on the Orwell at Trimley, Suffolk. Those other wetland birds, the bittern, Savi’s warbler and black tern, remained until the early nineteenth century (they have now returned following intensive conservation efforts).
The Anglo-Saxons and their medieval descendants were free to catch what birds they liked for food and their main problem was the best means to adopt. Some idea of these methods can be gleaned from the Colloquy of Ælfric, a tenth-century educational dialogue between master and pupil quoted by Gurney.
Magister: What say you, Auceps? How do you beguile birds?
Auceps: I beguile birds in many ways; sometimes with nets, sometimes with snares, sometimes with bird lime, sometimes with a call, sometimes with a bow, sometimes with a decoy.
With William the Conqueror came many of the inconsistencies which still dictate the relationships between birds and men. William introduced the special hunting forests where only the privileged could take the better game animals, and the harsh, unjust forest laws to enforce his ideals, foreshadowing the Game Act of 1831. With William we see the beginnings of those illogical attitudes which defined sport as the prerogative of gentlemen, as distinct from such plebeian pursuits as shooting sitting birds, which though much more humane, were associated with the illicit movements of the poacher or serf. Sport in Norman days included hawking, first introduced to England about AD 860, stag-hunting, hare-hunting and greyhound coursing; and the idea developed of game as animals worth eating and thus to be preserved. Deprived of hunting rights, the husbandman had to find other means for amusement, and cock-fighting provided one outlet. In ages when petty pilfering carried the death penalty and the sanctity of human life counted for little, this must have seemed an innocuous enough sport. Sir Gervase Markham (1638) gives a good account of cocking: ‘then you shall take his wings and spreading them forth by the length of the first feather of his rising wing clip the rest slipe wise with sharp points, that in his rising he may therewith endanger the eye of his adversary: then with a sharp knife you shall scape smooth and sharpen his spures.’ Cock tournaments did not become illegal until 1849, and even today occasional legal proceedings are reported against some mains in north-east England. Quite apart from the appeal of betting, cock-fighting attracted a big following of people roused by sado-masochistic impulses – just as today many watch wrestling and boxing matches who can hardly be all that interested in the arts of self defence. Even at the beginning of the nineteenth century, fashionable ladies could foregather at Hurlingham to watch the gentlemen shoot pigeons released from cages; today trap shooting is harmless because clay discs replace a bewildered bird.
Inevitably there was pressure to find alternative meat supplies, to supplement the vagaries of hunting and to guarantee winter meat, and domesticated and semi-tame birds helped satisfy this need. But from William’s time a host of rules and regulations restricted the number of persons able to enjoy such privileges. Richard II passed a statute forbidding artificers, labourers and persons not having lands of the value of 40s. a year from keeping greyhounds, or using ferrets for taking deer, hares or conies and other gentlemen’s game. Edward IV enacted that, except for the sons of the King, only freeholders of land above a certain value could mark swans; swans on land below this value could be seized for the King.
Most north temperate birds have their breeding season proximately controlled by seasonal changes in daylength, and the deposition of post-nuptial migratory fat and other physiological events also have a photoperiodic basis. This was discovered empirically long ago and led to the practice of mewing – putting birds in the mews usually reserved for hawks, and then subjecting them to artificial light regimes. By being given extra light, muiten birds in Holland could be brought into breeding condition and made to sing in autumn, thereby serving as excellent decoys for the bird catchers trying to attract passing migrants. In Britain, the earlier process of keeping birds in the dark to fatten them was known, and to save on mew space it proved quicker simply to sew up the eyes of cranes and swans: the modern poultry farmer is doing nothing new in principle in regulating the light regime for his battery hens.
The Japanese and Chinese had learned in the fifth century AD that cormorants could be trained to catch fish for their masters – a fascinating use for which these birds are still employed in the East. Knowledge of the practice reached Europe and James I and Charles I both employed a Master of the Cormorants, who, at the royal bidding, travelled widely to display the skill of his charges.
Stone Age man had doubtless learned to take advantage of birds that had regular and predictable habits which made them easier to catch. The flightless condition assumed by wildfowl after breeding must early have attracted attention. Suitable ponds were being turned into decoys by the reign of King John (1199–1266) and were equipped with netted pipes into which the birds were driven, especially flappers in July. The more sophisticated Dutch technique, whereby dogs were employed to appear from behind a series of screens to arouse the curiosity of the ducks and so entice them up the pipes, was not introduced to Britain until the sixteenth century.
It was soon realised that certain dogs were more effective than others;