A few posts ago, #726 to be precise, I revealed the "truly rubbishly deeply" nature of a book aimed at, er, young bird-watchers . And a right pair of jumped-up over-privileged gits they are too ! And the old git, a Mr. Nesbitt, who whisks them off to a remote seaside cottage in Devon is no better.It looks like a right dodgy set-up to me. [The two kids, Mike and Chips ( a girl) seem to be about 14-16-ish as far as I can tell] I've been looking for a passage that sums up everything that is wrong with it .... Mr. Nesbitt is trying to get Mike to begin an intensive study of the life-cycle of the song Thrush ! He's already told him to use 5" by 3"* record cards ( in different colours for song, nesting, moulting,etc, which he must keep in small drawers which can be made of cardboard, wood or metal according to what he can afford !! Then he has rambled on about correlating song with temperature and blah blah blah ... then Mike chucks in a question .... " What is a physiologist, Mr. Nesbitt ?" "Why*, someone who makes a study of the many changes that occur in living matter. But as his* work involves dissecting specimens in the laboratory you will have to do without his* services for the time being. Well, so much for song. The next point of importance is nesting, or if you want to be really technical you can call it " Breeding Biology." I use buff-coloured cards* for all matters relating to this section. you, of course, can use what colours you like.* Now here again is a vast field for your efforts. Some of the things we want more information about relate to the actual time of the year when pairing takes place, and the type of showing off or courtship-display that the cock* indulges in when trying to attract the lady of his choice. " That's all very well, Mr. Nesbitt, but as the pairing and courtship-display will have taken place before nesting begins, I won't know anything about it until the following year." " Now Mike, don't try and tie me up in knots. You are quite right, I only suggested your starting work at the beginning of the nesting season because it is the easiest time of the year to see what a bird is up to. Once you have found the nest there is a definite point on which to focus most of your attention.Before this happens you need a great deal of patience and perseverance to keep an individual bird under observation. The actual method you use is one, no doubt, that will only come by experience in the field.* There is a golden rule, however. Keep your eyes open and watch, and go on watching and watching and then some day you may come upon an intimate little aspect of behaviour which has never been seen before." * Old farty-pants Nesbitt goes on and on and on about all this .... using old sacks for hide-building, the construction of peep-holes which must be conveniently placed so that they can be used whilst sitting down and which must be closed with little flaps when not in use, and how he must obtaining a suitable camera, blah-blah-blah. Surely that would encourage any child with half a brain to get the soonest train back to some sort of normal teenage life. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There's pages and pages of that sort of tripe. Talk about too much too soon.! They're the sort of kids who say things like .. " Rather" and "Goody" and "I say !" and " Good for you !" and" Good Heavens !" They reply with " I should jolly well think so" and " How frightfully interesting" and " Oh my Golly Gosh." As you can see, I think that book is an abomination. Crumbs .. apparently 'tis Christmas Day. The music should be something Christmas - y. And this certainly is. One of my favourite German songs ... Zwischen den Jahren ... " Between the Years " .... * I wouldn't be at all surprised if that 5" x 3" is some secret Masonic code.
* I told you they keep starting sentences with " Why , " * So ... physiologists are all male are they ? * Buff-coloured blasted cards. This man is a control freak. * A generous but rather incongruous and out-of-character concession. * All birds are "cocks" or "hens" in this book. * I'm not sure if Mike knows what " experience in the field" might be. There are other interpretations which might lead to other scenarios. * So ..you spend hours freezing half to death in a sackcloth hide, only to "discover" some footling bit of "behaviour" that nobody has seen before. how exciting.And vital.
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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