The Birds [antikvár]

Introduction Since birds, like men, are largely diurnal creatures and share with us the familiar day-time world of colour and sound, our association with them is, not surprisingly, a long and intimate one. Man has always had a double interest in birds—on the one hand aesthetic, personal, impractical; on the other, utilitarian. The latter has changed with the times and with the sum of human knowledge. Long ago, when superstitions and priestly cults were the "science" of the day, the flights of birds were carefully studied for omens, as were their entrails. For centuries man tried to probe the mysteries of flight. Although he never succeeded in duplicating the effortless, endlessly flexible aerial mastery possessed by birds, he does share the air with them today. That leads inevitably to the problems of navigation and space travel, and we find ourselves turning to the birds again—for evidence is accumulating that they chart their courses, during migration, by the sun and stars. Will we learn anything about navigation from them ? Conceivably, although it is likely that we will succeed only in developing something which, in comparison to the way the birds do it, will turn out to be as crude and expensive and inflexible as a propeller-driven plane when compared to a feathered wing. Birds have helped men for thousands of years, from the geese whose warning cries saved Rome to the canaries that were used to warn coal miners of methane-gas leakage. From research currently under way, there is some reason to believe that birds may continue to provide this kind of life-saving service by warning us that the doses of chemicals and radioactive particles that we eat, drink, breathe and absorb day after day may be reaching dangerous levels. Truly, birds touch us in unexpected places. They are far more to us than ducks and pheasants to be shot, or chickadees and cardinals to brighten a suburban winter. Being a gifted painter of birds, and in a sense the creator of the modern system of field identification of birds, Roger Peterson should not be expected to be able to do other things. And yet he is an accomphshed photographer. I once spent a day with Roger in Rhodesia as he photographed greater kudas, lilac-breasted rollers, African lions and other assorted fauna. I was impressed by his care and persistence, and I recommend to the reader that he turn to the picture credits on page i86 of this book to find examples of Roger's skill with the camera. Here is a man who can do everything, including write. Small wonder that the editors of Life were delighted to have him as the author of this fine volume. Dean Amadon Lamont Curator of Birds, Chairman of the Department of Ornithology, The American Museum of Natural History