Bird Sense (35 page)

 
5
.        In fact, Chapman did have a few reservations for he had noticed that with mallard ducks the direction of approach
did
matter – the difficulty, of course, was that, despite these hunters’ statements to the contrary, they could not exclude vision and hearing. Elliot Coues (
1842
–
99
) was a surgeon and ornithologist.

 
6
.        This was one way that researchers attempted to verify their results in the late
1700
s – not always with success (see Schickore,
2007
:
43
).

 
7
.        The debate was carried out in
Loudon’s Magazine
(Gurney,
1922
). While Waterton was in Guiana he taught one of his uncle’s slaves, John Edmonstone, his skills. Edmonstone, by then freed and practising taxidermy in Edinburgh, in turn taught the teenage Charles Darwin to skin birds.

 
8
.        Confirmed by anatomy of olfactory cavity in the two species (see Bang
1960
,
1965
,
1971
); Stager (
1964
,
1967
).

 
9
.        Asafoetida, also known as devil’s dung, is a powerful-smelling substance obtained from the umbelliferous plant
Ferula asafoetida
, and used – in tiny amounts – to flavour Worcestershire Sauce, and used by hunters as a lure! It is also used in enemas, and is a folk remedy for childhood diseases: Hill (
1905
).

 
10
.        Pickcheese – Gurney (
1922
); varied tit (Koyama,
1999
; S. Koyama, personal communication); to ‘fye out’ is from Gurney (
1922
).

 
11
.        Tomalin (
2008
): Hardy used real events in his stories.

 
12
.        This story was related in the
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine
for
1873
, vol. xviii, p.
299
– cited in Gurney (
1922
).

 
13
.        Gurney (
1922
:
234
).

 
14
.        Owen (
1837
).

 
15
.        Gurney (
1922
:
277
) refers to several anatomical studies.

 
16
.        Gurney (
1922
).

 
17
.        Citing Gurney (
1922
) as evidence.

 
18
.        Textbook classics like Pierre-Paul Grasse’s
Traité de
Zoology: Oiseaux
(
1950
) and Jock Marshall’s
Comparative Physiology of Birds
(
1961
) reiterated the same negative view. Even the much more recent and wonderful
Handbook of Birds of the World
says that, with the exception of a handful of species, most birds have a poor sense of smell (del Hoyo et al.,
1992
).

 
19
.        Taverner (
1942
).

 
20
.        Singular = concha, but these structures are paired, one on each side of the nose.

 
21
.        Van Buskirk and Nevitt (
2007
); Jones and Roper (
1997
).

 
22
.        From her daughter Molly, cited in Nevitt and Hagelin (
2009
).

 
23
.        Wenzel (
2007
).

 
24
.        Their study mentions ‘
108
’ species but they counted rock dove,
Columba livia
, and feral pigeon, and also
Columba livia
, as different species – which they are not.

 
25
.        Strictly, the ratio between the longest diameter of the olfactory bulb and the longest diameter of the ipsilateral cerebral hemisphere.

 
26
.        Bang and Cobb (
1968
).

 
27
.        Clark et al. (
1993
); see also Balthazart and Schoffeniels (
1979
): the current consensus seems to be that a large olfactory bulb does indicate a good sense of smell, but a small one doesn’t necessarily mean the opposite. There is still much to find out.

 
28
.        Bang and Cobb (
1968
).

 
29
.        Stager (
1964
); Bang and Cobb (
1968
). Today, ethyl mercaptan is added to domestic gas to make it detectable in case of leaks.

 
30
.        Bang and Cobb (
1968
) built on the previous studies of Bumm (
1883
) and Turner (
1891
).

 
31
.        S. Healy, personal communication.

 
32
.        Methods for dealing with allometry in comparative studies are given in Harvey and Pagel (
1991
).

 
33
.        Verner and Willson (
1966
); see also Harvey and Pagel (
1991
).

 
34
.        Methods for dealing with phylogeny in comparative studies are given in Harvey and Pagel (
1991
).

 
35
.        Healy and Guilford (
1990
).

 
36
.        Healy and Guilford (
1990
) used Bang and Cobb (
1968
) and Bang (
1971
) –
124
species in total.

 
37
.        Corfield et al. (
2008
b).

 
38
.        Corfield (
2009
).

 
39
.        Steiger et al. (
2008
). The nine species used in this study were the blue tit, black coucal, brown kiwi, canary, galah, red jungle fowl, kakapo, mallard and snow petrel. Steiger et al. also suggest that while birds with both relatively large olfactory bulb regions and olfactory gene repertoires may have an excellent sense of smell, the opposite might not be true.

 
40
.        Fisher (
2002
).

 
41
.        Newton (
1896
).

 
42
.        Owen (
1879
).

 
43
.        Jackson (
1999
:
326
).

 
44
.        Benham (
1906
).

 
45
.        Wenzel (
1965
).

 
46
.        Wenzel (
1968
,
1971
): by today’s standards, recording from just two birds seems inadequate, but that was how physiologists operated then.

 
47
.        Wenzel (
1971
).

 
48
.        Wenzel (
1971
).

 
49
.        Aldrovandi (
1599
–
1603
); Buffon (
1770
–
83
).

 
50
.        Montagu (
1813
).

 
51
.        Gurney (
1922
).

 
52
.        Bang and Cobb (
1968
).

 
53
.        Bang and Wenzel (
1985
).

 
54
.        B. Wenzel, personal communication.

 
55
.        Loye Miller (
1874
–
1970
).

 
56
.        Perhaps it should be scumming? Chumming is the term used to attract sharks or other fish while fishing; it involves throwing chopped-up bait or fish bits into the sea.

 
57
.        Wisby and Halser (
1954
).

 
58
.        Jouventin and Weimerskirch (
1990
).

 
59
.        Grubb (
1972
).

 
60
.        Hutchinson and Wenzel (
1980
).

 
61
.        G. Nevitt, personal communication.

 
62
.        G. Nevitt, personal communication.

 
63
.        Bonadonna et al. (
2006
).

 
64
.        Collins (
1884
).

 
65
.        Nevitt et al. (
2008
).

 
66
.        Fleissner et al. (
2003
); Falkenberg et al. (
2010
).

 
67
.        Cited in Freidmann (
1955
).

6. A MAGNETIC SENSE

 
1
.        Gill et al. (
2009
).

 
2
.        Both Lockley and Lack must have been familiar with some early displacement studies of terns in the Caribbean conducted in the early
1900
s by Watson (
1908
) and Watson and Lashley (
1915
); see also Wiltschko and Wiltschko (
2003
). The story of Caroline is told in Lockley (
1942
).

 
3
.        Lockley (
1942
).

 
4
.        Brooke (
1990
).

 
5
.        Brooke (
1990
).

 
6
.        Guilford et al. (
2009
).

 
7
.        Migratory restlessness is also known as
Zugunruhe
, because it was thought to be discovered by German ornithologists: it wasn’t. It was discovered by an anonymous Frenchman: see Birkhead (
2008
).

 
8
.        Birkhead (
2008
); there have since been modifications of the basic design.

 
9
.        Middendorf (
1859
); Viguier (
1882
). The earth is a giant magnet with ‘field lines’ leaving the earth at its southern pole, re-entering again at the northern pole. At the equator the field lines are parallel to the earth’s surface, but become steeper towards the poles. The strength (intensity) of the magnetic field also varies predictably across the earth’s surface. Together, the angle of the field lines and the intensity of the magnetic field create unique ‘magnetic signatures’ for particular locations, which animals with magnetic maps can potentially utilise to ascertain their location. In the
1980
s Robin Baker, then at Manchester University, conducted experiments on undergraduates that, to him at least, suggested a magnetic sense, although the rest of the scientific community were not convinced.