100



Mr. W. E. Tescheiviaker,



Avicultural literature, properly so called, has been preceded in

all European countries by certain curious old works on sport and

natural history, many of which are of respectable antiquity; as, for

instance, in England, Leonard Mascall’s work on Fowling, 1590, ‘ A

Jewell for Gentrie ’ (Hawking, Fowling, Fishing), 1614; ‘ Hunger’s

Prevention ’ (Fowling), by Gervase Markham, 1655; in France,

‘ Histoire de la Nature des Oyseaux,’ by Du Mans, 1555; ‘ Les

Ruses Innocentes ’ (trapping migratory and non-migratory birds,

also quadrupeds), 1610 ; in Italy, ‘ L’Uccellatura A Vischio di Pietro

Angelio Bargeo ’ (a poem on Fowling), 1568; “ II Canto de Gl’

Avgellia ’ (Fowling : interesting as being the foundation of Olina’s

work), 1601; ‘ Olina’s Natural History,’ 1622. (The above titles have

been much abbreviated.)


A perusal of these quaint old works will convince the student

that in the sixteenth century the chief interest manifested in

European birds was a gastronomic one.


Here we find the Germans well to the fore, in Lark-catching

with their immense fiight-nets, and particularly in Thrush-catching

with “ Dolmen ” (hanging snares) and “ Schlingen ” (horse-hair

nooses). Records are still extant of the number of birds snared in

one small district in the Rhine provinces between the years 1611 and

1632, and include 7409 Redwings, 5254 Thrushes, 744 Redbreasts,

52 Redstarts, 54 Yellowhammers, 155 Chaffinches, 2674 Skylarks,

1059 Tits, 14 Waxwings, 51 Jays, etc.


Heresbachius, writing in 1537, tells us (translation) that

Thrushes “ are chiefly caught in Germany in the winter. They are

cooked whole, for the insides are eaten also. They have the intestines

filled with the berries of the Juniper.” William Turner in his ‘ New

Herbal,’ 1551, also tells us that the juniper “ groweth in Germany in

many places in greate plentye but in no place in greater than a lytle

from Bon, where as at the time of year the feldefares fede only of

Junipers berries, the people eate the feldefares undrawen with guttes

and all because they are full of the berries of Juniper.”


I am aware that this is not a nice introduction to German

aviculture, but, for those who would understand the subject, it is a

necessary one.



