Bird Sense (32 page)

Notes

PREFACE

 
1
.        Some blind people are able to use echolocation to navigate within a room, and some – as mentioned in the Postscript – can echolocate outside, by uttering a double click noise and listening to the echo (Griffin,
1958
; Rosenblum,
2010
).

 
2
.        The invention of the microscope is usually credited to a Dutch father and son team, Hans and Zacharias Jansen, spectacle makers in the
1590
s and
1600
s, although the ancient Chinese reputedly made low-power ‘microscopes’ using a lens and a tube of water (probably of quartz) (Ruestow,
1996
); fMRI: Voss et al. (
2007
).

 
3
.         ‘Swifts’, a poem by Ted Hughes.

 
4
.        Corfield et al. (
2008
).

 
5
.        Tinbergen (
1963
); Krebs and Davies (
1997
).

 
6
.        Forstmeier and Birkhead (
2004
)

 
7
.        Swaddle et al. (
2008
).

 
8
.        Eaton and Lanyon (
2003
).

 
9
.        Hill and McGraw (
2006
).

1. SEEING

 
1
.         ‘Shrike’ (
OED
) means shriek, and may refer to the cry the bird made on seeing a falcon, when being used by falconers. Linnaeus called it
Lanius
(butcher, hence butcher bird)
excubitor
(sentinel). Some believe that ‘sentinel’ refers to its use by falconers, but others think that it refers to the bird’s habit of sitting out in the open when it is hunting: Schlegl and Wulverhorst (
1844
–
53
); the quote is from Harting (
1883
).

 
2
.        Harting (
1883
).

 
3
.        Harting (
1883
).

 
4
.        Wood and Fyfe (
1943
); Montgomerie and Birkhead (
2009
); Wood (
1931
): note that Casey Wood worked with J. R. Slonaker, one of the pioneers in the study of avian eyes.

 
5
.        Walls (
1942
).

 
6
.        Wood (
1917
): the loggerhead shrike is very closely related to the great grey shrike.

 
7
.        Ings (
2007
); Nilsson and Pelger (
1994
);

 
8
.        Rochon-Duvigneaud (
1943
); Buffon (
1770
, vol.
1
). The idea that the vision of birds is ‘better’ than that of humans is simplistic, partly because different bird species differ in their eyesight, and, because vision is multi-faceted, some birds have good visual acuity, others good sensitivity.

 
9
.        Rennie (
1835
:
8
).

 
10
.        Fox et al. (
1976
).

 
11
.        One possibility is that birds have something equivalent to the inbuilt face recognition system that humans have (see Rosenblum,
2010
), and while to us all guillemots look the same, to a guillemot every other guillemot looks different. Another possibility is that, like us, birds can recognise each other from the pattern of movement.

 
12
.        Harvey’s book has been translated by Whitteridge (
1981
:
107
).

 
13
.        Howland et al. (
2004
); Burton (
2008
).

 
14
.        Wood and Fyfe (
1943
:
600
).

 
15
.        Walls (
1942
). As is now clear, kiwis have traded vision for a suite of other senses (see chapters
2
,
3
and
5
).

 
16
.        Derham (
1713
).

 
17
.        Woodson (
1961
).

 
18
.        Martin (
1990
).

 
19
.        Newton (
1896
:
229
).

 
20
.        Wood and Fyfe (
1943
:
60
).

 
21
.        Perrault (
1680
).

 
22
.        Ray (
1678
).

 
23
.        Perrault (
1676
, cited and illustrated in Cole (
1944
)).

 
24
.        Newton (
1896
); Wood (
1917
).

 
25
.        Soemmerring – cited in Slonaker (
1897
).

 
26
.        Known also as the temporal and lateral; deep and shallow foveas.

 
27
.        Snyder and Miller (
1978
).

 
28
.        But see Tucker (
2000
) and Tucker et al. (
2000
). Whether binocular vision (both eyes viewing the same object simultaneously) results in depth perception (stereopsis) in birds is unclear (Martin and Orsorio,
2008
).

 
29
.        Martin and Osorio (
2008
):

 
30
.        Gilliard (
1962
). Note that this was the Guianan species of the cock-of-the-rock.

 
31
.        Andersson (
1994
).

 
32
.        Cuthill (
2006
).

 
33
.        Ballentine and Hill (
2003
).

 
34
.        Martin (
1990
).

 
35
.        Martin (
1990
).

 
36
.        Nottebohm (
1977
); Rogers (
2008
).

 
37
.        Thomas More (
1653
) mentions parrots being mainly left-handed; see also Harris (
1969
) and Rogers (
2004
). Handedness in crossbills, first noted by Townson (
1799
, cited in Knox,
1983
) is associated with their crossed bill, which is an adaptation for extracting seeds from pine cones. In the common crossbill about half the population is ‘left-billed’, in which the lower bill crosses to the left of the upper; the rest are ‘right-billed’ birds. As Knox (
1983
) says: ‘Because of the way the bird holds the cone, most of the strain is taken by the foot on the opposite side to that to which the lower mandible [bill] crosses. Therefore a left-billed bird is “right-handed”. Right-handed birds have a longer right leg and larger jaw muscles on the left hand side of the skull, so the asymmetry is quite pronounced. The direction of bill crossing is determined as nestlings before the bill tips actually cross. Neither the cause of the direction of crossing nor its cognitive consequences are known. The Hawaii akepa (a small red honeycreeper) also possesses a (subtly) crossed bill and exhibits handedness’ (Knox,
1983
).

 
38
.        Rogers (
2008
).

 
39
.        Lesley Rogers, personal communication.

 
40
.        Rogers (
1982
).

 
41
.        Rogers (
2008
); see also Tucker (
2000
), Tucker et al. (
2000
).

 
42
.        Weir et al. (
2004
); see also Rogers et al. (
2004
).

 
43
.        Rogers (
1982
).

 
44
.        Rattenborg et al. (
1999
,
2000
): it is worth noting, with scientific caution, that knowing whether a bird is truly asleep requires knowledge of its brain function since sleep is defined by particular patterns of electrical brain activity. It isn’t possible to know whether or not a bird is asleep simply by seeing whether its eye(s) are open or not.

 
45
.        Rattenborg et al. (
1999
,
2000
).

 
46
.        Lack (
1956
); Rattenborg et al. (
2000
).

 
47
.        Stetson et al. (
2007
). In fact, insects achieve this by extracting only the relevant information they need from the flow of images they receive, and it is possible that birds may do something similar.

2. HEARING

 
1
.        Newton (
1896
:
178
).

 
2
.        Bray and Thurlow (
1942
); Dooling (
2000
).

 
3
.        Baldner’s (
1666
– see also Baldner (
1973
) facsimile) illustrated account of the birds of the Rhine inspired Willughby and Ray (Ray,
1678
). Baldner was incorrect in thinking that the bittern’s boom was uttered mainly by the female, but correct in saying that the head is held high while booming. Others thought the sound was created by the bittern blowing into a reed. Writing about ‘The Fen Country’ during his journey through Britain, Daniel Defoe commented: ‘Here we had the uncouth musick of the bittern, a bird formerly counted ominous and presaging, and who, as fame tells us, (but as I believe no body knows) thrusts its bill into a reed, and then gives the dull, heavy groan or sound, like a sigh, which it does so loud, that with a deep base, like the sound of a gun at a great distance, ’tis heard two or three miles, (say the people) but perhaps not quite so far’ (Defoe
1724
–
7
). The South American bellbirds
Procnias
spp. also have an extremely loud call.

An ell(e) – a forearm, literally – was a unit of measurement previously used by tailors: however, it differed between regions of Germany. A forearm is about
40
cm, so Baldner’s five ells would make
200
cm (two metres) – unlikely for the bittern’s esophagus but possible if he meant the entire gut. There’s a note in Baldner (
1666
) that says that a Strasbourg ell is ‘
2
foot long, but a foot is a little less than an English foot’ which simply adds to the confusion.