This book looks at 100 items that have profoundly shaped how people watched, studied and engaged with the avian world.
Each item contains around 500 words on a double-page spread and include an illustration of the object in question. The book includes the objects listed below as well as many more.The range of items is international and cross-cultural. Subjects include:
*An Egyptian ‘field guide’ (early tomb decorations of birds, identifiable as species)
*Ornithologiae libri tres: the first British bird guide (a 1676 publication that attempted to itemise all British birds known at the time)
*The Dodo specimen held at the Horniman museum
*Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus (the first-ever system of scientific names in 1758, and still the international standard today)
*The shotgun
*The book, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne by Gilbert White (1789)
*HMS Beagle (the ship on which Darwin made his ground-breaking discoveries)
*Aluminium bird rings (used to record movement and longevity of individuals and species)
Along with many more modern innovations including walkie talkies, pagers, radio tags and apps.
