The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy (35 page)

qualities,
223–4
,
230

relations with sister Mary,
10

McCarthy, Seb (author’s son),
168–9
,
196
,
200
,
231

Maclean, Norman,
171

magnolia,
148–9
,
156

magnolia warbler (bird),
162

magpie,
112

mammoth, woolly,
206–7

mangroves,
25–6
,
72

Marren, Peter,
98

Marsh, George Perkins:
Man and Nature
,
46–7
,
48

mayfly,
176

Medici, Lorenzo de’,
190

Melchett, Peter,
102

Melville, Herman:
Moby-Dick
,
197

Mersey, river,
40–1

Mississippi, river,
172

Mitchell, Joni,
224

monitor lizard,
206

Montefeltro, Federigo da,
190

Moore, Henry,
96

Moores, Charlie,
78

Moores, Nial,
66–7
,
73
,
78–80
,
84
,
219–20

morpho butterflies,
167
,
193–4

moths

characteristics,
100–1

collected by boys,
36

in Normandy,
152

numbers,
13
,
100
,
102–5

species numbers,
101

motor vehicles: pollution,
114
,
117

mountain gorilla,
244

mountain ringlet (butterfly),
234–5

Muir, John,
47–8

Murdoch, Iris:
A Fairly Honourable Defeat
,
156

mystery: and wonder,
201
,
204–5

Na So-Yeol,
83

national parks,
242–4

National Wilderness Preservation System (USA),
48

natural selection,
58

nature

age,
201–2

beauty in,
155–60
,
162
,
169–70

belief in preservation,
245–6

and conservation,
242–4

destruction and loss,
64–5
,
239–40
,
245

and ecosystem,
23–4

and effect of farming,
43

exploitation,
46

form in,
170

human feelings for,
5–7
,
12
,
30–1
,
60–3
,
127
,
169
,
216
,
220–1
,
246

human threat to,
13–16
,
21–2

joy of,
29–30
,
32–3
,
55
,
62–3
,
75
,
123
,
127
,
154–5
,
179
,
194
,
238

and poetry,
29

power and endurance,
219–21
,
238–9

and self-knowledge,
215–16

and sustainable development,
21

and transformation,
202–3

valuing,
28

and wildernesses,
42–8

and wonder,
194–7
,
201
,
203
,
209–11

and world urbanisation,
125–7

Nature Conservancy (Britain) founded,
110

Newman, L. Hugh,
10

Nicholson, Max,
109–10
,
112–13

Niger, river,
172

nightingale

decline,
17

and wonder,
194–5

Normandy,
152
,
164
,
168

Observer’s Book of Birds
,
The
,
37–8

Observer’s Book of Butterflies
,
The
,
9
,
191
,
232

Observer’s Book of Opera
,
The
,
37

oceans: animal life,
207

Oedipus,
19–20

Office for Science (British),
240

orchards: destroyed in Britain,
91

Orians, Gordon,
59

Ovid:
Metamorphoses
,
202

Pain, Debbie,
211–12

painted lady (butterfly),
237

pangolins,
72

Paris: sparrows,
111

Parsons, Mark,
104
,
209

peace,
216–17
,
238

peacock (butterfly),
231

pearl-bordered fritillary (butterfly),
99–100

peregrine falcon,
109

Perrin’s beaked whale
see
whales, Perrin’s beaked

pesticides,
93–4

Peterson, Roger Tory, Guy Mountfort and P. A. D. Hollom:
The Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe
,
53

Petrarch,
157

petrol: pollution by lead-free,
114
,
117

Picturesque: concept of,
44

Piero della Francesca
Resurrection
,
190

pigeon (feral),
109
,
120

Plantlife (charity),
98

plants: flowering,
155–6

poetry: on birdsong,
29

pollination,
23

pollution: of rivers,
177–8
,
180–3

poppies,
163

population: world growth,
14–15

porpoises,
198

Potter, Beatrix,
37

Prescott, Tom,
233–4

Profumo, John,
208

Queen of Spain fritillary (butterfly),
9

rabbits,
137

rainbow trout,
163

rainforests

animal life,
207

as ecosystems,
24

red admiral (butterfly),
5
,
8

red-backed shrike
see
shrike, red-backed

redshank,
50
,
53
,
55

rhinoceros

hunted for horn,
244

Vietnamese,
16–17
,
207

Rio de Janeiro: Earth Summit (1992) and Rio+20 (2012),
22

rivers,
170–3
,
175–83

Romania,
209–10

Rome: Twentieth Legion (
Valeria Victrix
),
40

Rossetti, Christina,
165–6

Rothamsted research station, Hertfordshire,
104
,
114

Rothschild, Charles,
243

Rothschild, Miriam,
102

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques,
44

Royal Parks Wildlife Group,
110

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB),
34
,
77
,
110–11

Rutherford, Ernest, Baron,
22–3

ryegrass,
92

Saemangeum, South Korea,
66–8
,
70
,
74
,
78–82
,
84–5
,
87
,
105
,
211
,
219

salmon (
Salmo salar
): in Thames,
180–8

San Jacinto lagoon, Baja California, Mexico,
200
,
212

sandpiper, spoon-billed,
73–4
,
211–12

saola (or Vu Quang ox),
206

savanna hypothesis,
59

Save the Sparrow (campaign),
111

Science
(journal),
60

Scott, Sir Peter,
73

seashore: birds and,
50

Second World War: food supply and farming development,
90

Shakespeare, William,
202

King Lear
,
202

The Tempest
,
134–5

Shanghai,
70–1

sharks: destruction,
72

Shoard, Marion:
The Theft of the Countryside
,
95–6

shrike, red-backed: near-extinction in Britain,
97

Sierra Club (USA),
48

Sixth Great Extinction,
64–5
,
239

skylark,
174

Slimbridge, Gloucestershire Wildlife and Wetlands Trust,
73
,
211

sloes,
150

Smith, Adam,
27
,
47

snowdrops,
131–3
,
136

Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves for Britain and the Empire,
243

solstice
see
winter solstice

Sophocles:
Oedipus Rex
,
19–20

spade-toothed whale
see
whales, spade-toothed

sparrow, house (
Passer domesticus
)

behaviour,
107–9

decline in London,
106–7
,
110–12
,
119–21

reasons for decline,
112–18

sparrowhawk,
112

spirits (supernatural),
134–9

spoon-billed sandpiper
see
sandpiper, spoon-billed