'Touching the Length and Shortness of Life in Living Creatures, the information which may be had is but slender, observation is Negligent and Tradition is Fabulous. In Tame Creatures their Degenerate Life corrupteth them; in Wild Creatures their exposing to all weathers often intercepteth them'
Francis Bacon 1638
One of the books I would not part with is this one by David Lack, from which I have taken the above quotation. Observation is far from negligent in this fascinating book which I've had since I lived in a remote cottage on a moor and first took an interest in birds.
By the age of nine David Lack knew the names of most birds and had written out an alphabetical list of them....read more about him here.
This edition was first published in 1965 and is dedicated by the author to 'all those robins who patiently bore my rings and permitted my intrusions into the intimacies of their lives'. Checking on Amazon I was delighted to see that it is still in print (and I've ordered a used copy of Redbreast: The Robin in Life and Literature - an anthology by David Lack's son Andrew Lack).
Either of these would make a good Christmas gift for anyone interested in ornithology....
More about 'my' robins tomorrow (and photographs on yesterday's post and on the Cards page.)
By the age of nine David Lack knew the names of most birds and had written out an alphabetical list of them....read more about him here.
This edition was first published in 1965 and is dedicated by the author to 'all those robins who patiently bore my rings and permitted my intrusions into the intimacies of their lives'. Checking on Amazon I was delighted to see that it is still in print (and I've ordered a used copy of Redbreast: The Robin in Life and Literature - an anthology by David Lack's son Andrew Lack).
Either of these would make a good Christmas gift for anyone interested in ornithology....
More about 'my' robins tomorrow (and photographs on yesterday's post and on the Cards page.)
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