A History 
of Birds. 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
(4i) 
A History of Birds. 
By W. P. PYCRAFT, A.L.S., F.Z.S., Etc. 
CHAPTER I. 
INTRODUCTORY.-WHAT IS A BIRD? 
While some will have it that “ the proper 
study of mankind is man,” there are not a few 
of us who consider that really the proper study 
of mankind is—Ornithology. Birds, since the 
dawn of man’s civilisation, have been the 
favourite objects of study with all those who 
possess that love of nature, and of wild crea¬ 
tures in particular, which is inborn. While the 
earlier naturalists of necessity began with a 
study of the habits of wild birds from the point 
of view of providing for the pot, there can be no 
doubt but that they soon learned that many species 
at any rate, were capable of domestication. 
And the keeping of domesticated animals was, 
according to a great authority on the origin ot 
human institutions, one of the most important 
factors in bringing about the transformation 
from a state of wandering savages to the highly 
complex society of the civilised peoples of to¬ 
day. 
In their endeavours to bring the wild crea¬ 
tures of nature into subjection, these early 
pioneers must have discovered, very soon, that 
birds would more than repay attention, and 
probably the earliest of their captives were kept 
as pets. Thus, then, we have good grounds 
for claiming for the science of Aviculture a 
hoary antiquity such as few sciences can boast. 
Birds, too, have played no small part in the 
shaping of the religious beliefs of more than 
one race, for from time immemorial the mys¬ 
terious migrations and strange habits of these 
creatures have been regarded as portents of 
unusual significance. 
BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 
The attention, however, which they drew 
upon themselves, from the religious point of 
view, was not always to their benefit, since 
many species came to be looked upon as birds 
of ill-omen, and to this day many have not 
outlived the infamy with which they were 
branded by the ignorant and superstitious of 
those dark days. Among the ancient Greeks, 
and the still more ancient Egyptians, birds were 
held in no light esteem, as may be seen in the 
literature of the one, and the hieroglyphics on 
the Pyramids of the other, while among later 
peoples, from Jewish historical times onwards, 
we find that, in one way or another, birds are 
constantly referred to. But the scientific study 
of birds, nevertheless, cannot be said to have 
begun until centuries after these old observers 
had passed away. 
PATRON SAINTS OF ORNITHOLOGY. 
The foundations of this study, one cannot but 
feel proud to think, were laid by two English¬ 
men, Francis Willughby (born 1635, died 1672) 
and John Ray (born 1628, died 1705). To the 
labours of these two men—and especially of the 
first—we owe the first serious and useful at¬ 
tempt to classify birds, and their success was 
due to the fact that their knowledge was based 
on a practical experience, combined with an 
ability to weigh and analyse the facts they set 
themselves to arrange. To-day we have adopted 
quite other ideas as to the relationships of birds 
and their classification, yet every true ornitholo¬ 
gist will regard Willughby and Ray as the 
patron saints of ornithology. 
To sketch the further progress of our beloved 
science, or to trace even in outline the achieve¬ 
ments of the many illustrious workers who 
have so unsparingly laboured in this field dur¬ 
ing the last two centuries, would be a task too 
long and too difficult. Our purpose, in these 
chapters, is rather to give a brief sum¬ 
mary of the state of our knowledge of birds 
generally to-day. At no time would this be an 
easy task, but the present writer realises that 
the difficulties are lessened by the fact that he 
is addressing a sympathetic body of readers, 
men who, from long experience in the difficult 
work of bird-keeping, earned at the cost of 
many mistakes, will look with a kindly eye 
on these efforts to present the history of birds 
in such a way as to make it at once interesting, 
brief and accurate. 
CHARACTERISTICS. 
Without more ado then, let us begin with the 
question : What is a bird ? Briefly, a bird may 
be distinguished from all other living creatures 
by its covering of feathers. But it is not by 
this token alone that birds are to be distin¬ 
guished, since they differ almost as markedly 
in the matter of their skeleton. But it is not 
enough that we should be able to quote the 
“ hall-mark,” so to speak, by which our favour¬ 
ites are to be recognised. At least, it is not 
enough for those of us who are not content with 
mere facts, for facts in themselves are about as 
nourishing as rusty nails. Thus, then, we ask 
instinctively, how have the birds come by these 
distinguishing characters? The answer to this 
riddle has been furnished partly by the anato¬ 
mist and partly by those who have spent their 
lives in reading the riddles of the rocks. 
Let us take the anatomist’s evidence first. 
According to him, the peculiarities which dis¬ 
tinguish the bird have been derived from the 
reptiles. The skeleton, for example, is built 
in the same general lines as that of the reptile, 
and this is nowhere more evident than in the 
skull. As in the reptile, it joins the neck by a 
single, rounded boss of bone, while in the 
mammals (the great class to which we our¬ 
selves belong, the class distinguished by the 
body covering of hair and the fact that the 
young are suckled by milk) the skull joins the 
