The Folklore of Birds

JAMES FISHER M.A.

JOHN GILMOUR M.A.

SIR JULIAN HUXLEY M.A. D.SC. F.R.S.

L. DUDLEY STAMP C.B.E. D.LITT. D.SC.

Photographic Editor

ERIC HOSKING F.R.P.S.

The aim of this series is to interest the general reader in the wild life of Britain by recapturing the inquiring spirit of the old naturalist. The Editors believe that the natural pride of the British public in the native fauna and flora, to which must be added concern for their conservation, is best fostered by maintaining a high standard of accuracy combined with clarity of exposition in presenting the results of modern scientific research.

To William Homan Thorpe

Cover Page

Title Page

Editors

EDITORS’ PREFACE

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

CHAPTER 1 THE PREHISTORIC BACKGROUND TO BIRD FOLKLORE

CHAPTER 2 THE MICHAELMAS GOOSE

CHAPTER 3 BIRD-MAIDENS

CHAPTER 4 THE RAIN-GOOSE

CHAPTER 5 THE BIRD OF DOOM AND DELUGE

CHAPTER 6 THE THUNDERBIRD

CHAPTER 7 NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS

CHAPTER 8 THE KING OF BIRDS

CHAPTER 9 THE WREN HUNT AND PROCESSION

CHAPTER 10 FIRE-BIRDS

CHAPTER 11 SONG-BIRDS AND TOADS

CHAPTER 12 THE HARBINGER OF SPRING

CHAPTER 13 WINGED SOULS

CHAPTER 14 BIRD FISH

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX AND CHAPTER REFERENCES

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

B&W Plates

Colour Plate

Acknowledgments

Other Works by the same Author

Copyright

About the Publisher

E. A. ARMSTRONG will be already known to the readers of the New Naturalist Series as the writer of one of the most important monographs on a single species of animal, his famous study, The Wren, published in 1955.

Wide scholarship and talents have fitted him uniquely for the authorship of The Wren’s most unusual sequel. We use the word ‘unusual’ deliberately because his The Folklore of Birds is a most extraordinary book. It could only have been written by a scholar with a deep understanding, not only of ornithology, but of social anthropology, psychology and religion.

Armstrong has selected an assemblage of well-known birds upon which to base what he describes in his sub-title as “An enquiry into the origin and distribution of some magico-religious traditions.” He has set himself the task of revealing the general principles that underlie the evolution and diffusion of beliefs and symbols. With the scientist’s eye and the scientist’s methods of analysis and investigation he has examined the development of myth and ritual with originality and ingenuity. It is hard for us to make a choice from the multitude of those odd and interesting facts which Armstrong cites in this book, to bring to the reader’s attention. Customs such as “breaking the wish-bone” are explained with new and brilliant reasoning. Every kind of naturalist—and archaeologists, folklorists and ornithologists are all naturalists—will follow with interest his compelling studies of the origins of such beliefs as those concerning weather-prophet birds, and of such fables as that of the generation of the barnacle goose from barnacles.

We do not know of any previous attempt of such importance to trace beliefs concerning birds as far back as possible in time, and to identify the cultures in which they must have originated. Armstrong has examined groups of folk-lore beliefs, it seems to us, in just the same way as an archaeologist examines a series of artifacts; and we know of no other scholar who has given folk-lore just this sort of treatment, classifying beliefs and notions in a system based upon the eopchs in which they originated.

Armstrong has, indeed, combined the facts derived from archaeology with oral and literary traditions, to illustrate the origins and significance of much of the current folk-lore of birds. Some of the magico-religious myths and cults, of which these fragmentary traditions are the relics, prevailed in the past throughout most of northern Europe and Asia and in some areas of North America. Such beliefs were carried about the world in the streams of culture, and their travels are often illuminated by graphic motifs and imagery, much of which is reproduced in the pages of this book, and some of which—from the old Stone Age to modern times—can be held to be artistic masterpieces.

Promoting, as it does, our understanding, both of man and nature, this is a book that we are proud to sponsor.

THE EDITORS

THE collectors of British folklore who were active in Victorian times and into the beginning of this century were just in time to record much of interest which has now disappeared. A few enthusiasts, notably the members of the Folklore Society and contributors to its journal, keep alive an interest in the subject, yet the study of folklore is currently regarded more as a recreation for the dilettante than as a respectable occupation. This may be due, in part, to the authors of many English books on the subject being content with presenting a pot-pourri of Victorian gleanings. Elsewhere, notably in Eire, Finland and Sweden, and at some universities in the United States, folklore research is conducted by highly trained scholars whose work has been an inspiration to their countrymen and a valuable contribution to man’s understanding of his past. Inspired by the ambition “to gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost” they have rescued much material from oblivion and, in some realms, especially the study of the folk-tale, laid solid foundations for further work. The increasingly rapid spread of industrialism and the standardisation of modes of thought due to modern means of communication are now eliminating ancient beliefs and practices over most of the world and consequently the geographical distribution of folk tradition is becoming obscured. The attrition of ancient folklore in this country has been particularly severe and its last strongholds, such as the Hebrides, are now under assault. It is but small consolation to hope that radio and television, which are doing so much to standardise thought, may eventually arouse interest in folklore as they have done in archaeology.