Flights of Fancy: Birds in Myth, Legend and Superstition
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.75 (720 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0099509873 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-08-24 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Ranging from a traditional Italian account of how the nightingale learned to sing to an exploration of the Welsh belief that eagles breeds storms on Mount Snowdon, it’s the perfect bedside companion for every birdwatcher.. Why were barnacle geese once classified as fish? When were kingfisher feathers used as love charms? Flights of Fancyis an endlessly browsable guide to the fascinating stories and bizarre superstitions that surround some of the world’s best-loved birds
When his publisher Anthony Witherby died some years ago, he placed the manuscript of his next book quietly away on a shelf and there it remained until earlier this year. . Peter Tate has published several books on ornithology, including Bird, Men and Books: A Literary History of Ornithology and A Century of Bird Books
"Nothing special" according to 5/0. "Flights of Fancy" (Birds in Myth, Legend and Superstition) by Peter Tate. Some good folklore trivia, but Note: it is written almost entirely for an audience in the U.K. and Europe.
This attractive guide will intrigue bird-watchers and nature lovers. From Booklist Tate says that what he has tried to do is select the stories that have most intrigued him in the course of a lifetime’s study, and he posits that he is fascinated by stories that recur in different traditions. --George Cohen . He points out that many of the stories probably were told originally just for fun; some, no doubt, were old wives’ tales told to scare or instruct children. Tate tells stories about 30 species of birds—from blackbirds to wrynecks—and each includes a line drawing and information on its song and diet