The links below refer to the page references of the printed edition of this book. While the numbers do not correspond to the page numbers or locations on an electronic reading device, they are retained as they can convey useful information regarding the position and amount of space devoted to an indexed entry. Because the size of a page varies in reflowable documents such as this e-book, it may be necessary to scroll down to find the referenced entry after following a link.
Ablett, Gordon (author’s uncle), 2, 4, 10, 34, 225, 230
Ablett, Mary (née Day; author’s aunt), 2–4, 9–10, 34, 230
and sister Norah’s death, 225
Adams, Douglas, 199
Adams, Richard: Watership Down, 137
Adonis blue (butterfly), 167
Aethelstan, King of the English, 40
agriculture see farming
Agriculture Act (1947), 99
alien big cats (ABCs), 205
Allee effect, 112
Alonissos (Greek island), 196
Alps, 44
Amazon, river, 171–2
Anders, William, 17–18
Anthropocene period (geological), 65
Apollo 8 (spacecraft), 18
art, 156
Asian brown tree snake, 239
Attlee, Clement, 90
Audubon, John James, 38
baiji (freshwater dolphin), 71, 87, 178
Baines, Chris, 102–3
Baird, John Logie, 22–3
Bazalgette, Sir Joseph, 182, 188
Beatles, The (pop group), 54
Benét, Stephen Vincent, 40
Benson, Miss S. Vere, 37
Bible, Holy: on moths, 100
Bigfoot (rumoured animal), 205
bioluminescence (phosphorescence), 212–13
Bird Lover’s League, 37
BirdLife International, 69
birds
author’s interest in, 34–5, 42, 49–50
colour, 162–3
dawn chorus, 202–3
effect of modern farming on, 92–4
illustrated books on, 37–40
records and surveys, 97
of seashore, 49–50, 52–3, 66–7
species decline and extinction, 73, 84, 98–9
Birds Korea (organisation), 78, 219
Birkenhead, 40–1
Birkhead, Tim, 116
Birmingham Wildlife Trust, 102
blackbird, 203
blackthorn, 149–51
Blean Woods, Kent, 236
blue (colour), 160, 163–70, 193, 208
bluebells, 159–60, 163, 167, 169
bluefin tuna, 17
Blunden, Edmund
‘The Recovery’ (poem), 217–18
Undertones of War, 219
Blunden, Margi, 219
bonobo (pygmy chimpanzee), 206
Borman, Frank, 18
Brazil, 191–3
Breeding Bird Survey, 97
brimstone (butterfly), 133, 135–6
Britain
Geological Survey, 173
modern farming methods, 89–91
wildlife losses, 87–9, 96–100, 106
wildlife surveys and censuses, 97–8
British Ornithological Union, 38
British Trust for Ornithology, 110–11
Brooke Bond (company), 36
brown hairstreak (butterfly), 236–7
brown trout (Salmo trutta), 175–6
Brunanburh, Battle of (937), 40
Brundtland, Gro Harlem, 21
Butcher, Greg, 162
Butser Hill, Hampshire, 232–3
butterflies
allure, 5, 7–9, 189–90, 193–4, 210–11, 231
blue, 167
decline and extinctions in Britain, 98–9
first appearance in year, 133
and moths, 101
search for all British species, 232–4, 236–7
valued, 28
Butterfly Conservation (BC; charity), 101, 104, 208, 232, 235, 237
Candlemas, 132–3
Carroll, Lewis: Alice in Wonderland, 137
Carson, Rachel: Silent Spring, 93
Carwardine, Mark, 199–200, 212
chalk: landscapes and streams, 173–8
Chauvet (cave, France), 7
chequered skipper (butterfly), 234
Chess, river, Chilterns, 176
Chester, 40
China
effect on nature and environment, 70–2, 80, 87, 105
river pollution, 178
Christmas see winter solstice
Clifden nonpareil (moth; blue underwing; Catocala fraxini), 101, 207–9
Clifton-Dey, Darryl, 187
climate change, 240
clouded yellow (butterfly), 236–8
Colum, Pádraic, 1
Common Agricultural Policy (European), 95
Common Bird Census, 97
common blue (butterfly), 167
Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), 144
Congo (Democratic Republic of), 144, 244
Conrad, Joseph, 28
Conservation of Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act (1975), 96
Costanza, Robert, 26
corn bunting, 100
cornflower, 164–5
cryptozoology, 205
Cuba crisis (1962), 54
cuckoo: movements tracked, 141–7
far eastern, 83–4
Daily, Gretchen (ed.): Nature’s Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems, 24–5
Daily Mirror, 191–2
Darwin, Charles
on natural selection, 58
On the Origin of Species, 46
David, Père, 4
DDT (pesticide), 93
Dee, river and estuary, 40–2, 49–52, 54–5, 65–6, 69, 75–7
Dee Crossing and Reservoir Scheme, 76
deforestation, 71
Deng Xiaoping, 70
Deraniyagala’s beaked whale see whales, Deraniyagala’s beaked
Dickinson, Emily, 166
dinosaurs: extinction, 64
Doig, Russell, 185
bioluminescent, 212–13
see also baiji
Dowling, Miss (teacher), 3
Driscoll, Melanie, 205
Duke of Burgundy (butterfly), 232–3
Earth Centre, near Doncaster, 245
Earthrise (photograph), 18, 63
East Asia/Australasia Flyway (EAAF), 69, 73
East Atlantic Flyway, 69
ecology: as science, 23
Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, The see TEEB
ecosystem
as concept, 23–4
egalitarianism, 157
egrets, 163
elephants: and ivory trade, 72, 239
The Waste Land, 158
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 45
‘Nature’ (essay), 195–6
English Nature, 116
environmentalists/conservationists, 18–19, 26
European Union environmental laws, 77
evolutionary psychology, 58–9
Farjeon, Eleanor: The Silver Curlew, 53
farming
deleterious effect on wildlife, 89–94
and food supply, 90, 95–6, 241
modern methods criticised, 95
First World War, 218–19
Fleming, Sir Alexander, 22–3
Flipper (film), 198
flowers see wild flowers
food supply (global), 240–1
form: in nature, 170
Fortean Times, 205
Fowles, John
The Magus, 204
Frickley Colliery, near Doncaster, 106
Friends of the Earth (organisation), 198
Fry, Stephen, 200
FUNAI (Brazil’s national Indian foundation), 192–3
Future of Food and Farming (British government report), 240–1
garden tiger (moth), 104
Gawain (knight), 48
genetically modified organisms, 241
George IV, King, 182
Geum river and estuary, South Korea, 83–5
Glasdrum Wood, Argyll, 233
Gluth, Mandy, 235
golden toad, 17
goldeneye (duck), 54
gorilla, mountain see mountain gorilla
Graffham Down, Sussex, 96
Grand Tour (European), 44
Great British Butterfly Hunt, 232, 236–7
Greene, Harry Plunket: Where the Bright Waters Meet, 177
Greenham Mill, Newbury, 186
Greenpeace (organisation), 198
Grey of Falloden, Edward, Viscount, 176
Guam (Pacific island), 239
Guinness Book of Records, 81
Hamilton, Emma, Lady, 40
harebell, 165–7
hares, 136–41
hawthorn, 151
hay and haymaking, 91–2
heath fritillary (butterfly; Melitaea athalia), 236
hedgerows: destroyed in Britain, 90–1
Hepburn, Ronald, 195
Heracleitus, 171
Herodotus, 197
Heuvelmans, Bernard: On the Track of Unknown Animals, 205–6
Hill, Les, 209
Hills, John Walter: A Summer on the Test, 177–8
Hoare, Dan, 232–3
Holocene period (geological), 65
Hopkins, Gerard Manley, 9, 75–6, 222
horses: decline of working, 91
How Hill Nature Reserve, Norfolk Broads, 235
Hughes, Ted, 173
‘October Salmon’ (poem), 146
Hulme, Neil, 237
human beings
evolution and culture, 58–60
and health, 60–1
and liberal secular humanism, 19–20, 57, 240
as part of nature, 59–63
threat to natural world, 13–19, 21
see also nature
hunter-gatherers, 58–9
and Great British Butterfly Hunt, 232, 236–7
insects
biomass measurement, 114–15
decline and extinction in Britain, 99
future, 241–2
killed by pesticides, 93–4
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 72, 84
Italy, 190
ivory, 71–2
ivory-billed woodpecker see woodpecker, ivory-billed
Japan: environmentalism, 79
Jarrett, Nigel, 211–12
Jefferson, Thomas, 46
Jesus Christ, 217
John Summers & Sons (steelworks), 52
John XXIII, Pope, 54
Johnson, Lyndon B., 48
joy
defined, 33
in nature, 29–30, 32–3, 55, 62–3, 75, 123, 127–8, 154–5, 179, 194, 238
and self-knowledge, 215–16
Kant, Immanuel, 195
Keeler, Christine, 208
Kennet, river, 186
Keulemans, John Gerrard, 38–9
Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens, 243
King, Andy, 237
kingfisher, 168
Komodo dragon, 206
Korea, South, 66–8, 74, 78–81, 83–4, 87, 105, 211
Kruger National Park, South Africa, 244
Kyra Panagia (Greek island), 196
lady’s slipper orchid, 209, 243
Laing, R. D., 2
Lake District, 44
landscape: form, 170
large blue (butterfly), 235–6
large copper (butterfly), 160, 163, 168
large yellow underwing (moth), 208
Larkin, Philip, 130
Lascaux (cave, France), 7
Last Chance to See (radio series), 199
Lawrence, D. H.: ‘Bavarian Gentians’ (poem), 164–5
Lennon, John, 163
Lepidoptera, 101
see also butterflies; moths
Lewington, Richard, 150
liberal secular humanism, 19–20, 57, 240
Lilford, Thomas Littleton, 4th Baron: Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands, 38
Loch Ness Monster, 205
Lodge, George Edward, 38
London
population, 181
sparrows decline, 106, 109–11, 117–21
London Natural History Society, 111, 119
Lord God Bird (Campephilus principalis), 207
love: and nature, 246
Lovegrove family (Maidenhead), 182
Lovell, Jim, 18
McCarthy, Flora (author’s daughter), 196, 200–1, 231
McCarthy, Jack (author’s father), 1–3, 224–5, 230
McCarthy, Jo (author’s wife), 77, 196, 200
McCarthy, John (author’s brother)
and author’s mental confusion, 227, 229
piano-playing, 222–4
troubled boyhood, 1, 3–4, 8, 10, 34–5, 222
McCarthy, Michael (author)
close relations with mother, 223–4
confused reaction to mother’s death, 226–30
lung collapses, 191
McCarthy, Norah (née Day; author’s mother)
author dedicates butterfly sightings to, 233–6, 238
author’s confused feelings for after death, 226–30
close relations with author, 223–4
death, 225–6
encourages son John’s career, 222–3
mental disturbances and recovery, 1–4, 9–10, 34–5, 221–2, 230
relations with sister Mary, 10
McCarthy, Seb (author’s son), 168–9, 196, 200, 231
Maclean, Norman, 171
magnolia warbler (bird), 162
magpie, 112
mammoth, woolly, 206–7
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
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
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
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
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
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
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-backed shrike see shrike, red-backed
rhinoceros
hunted for horn, 244
Rio de Janeiro: Earth Summit (1992) and Rio+20 (2012), 22
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
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
stonechat, 37
Sublime: concept of, 44
Summers-Smith, Denis, 107, 111, 113–18
The House Sparrow, 108
sunset, 129–30
Surui (Amerindian tribe), 192–3
sustainable development, 245
Tansley, Sir Arthur, 22–3
Tasmanian tiger, 206
TEEB Project (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity), 27, 245
Thames, river, 179–88
Thames Salmon Rehabilitation Scheme, 184, 187
Thames Salmon Trust, 186
Thomas, Caitlin, 173
Thomas, Edward, 158
Thomas, Jeremy, 235–6
Thorburn, Archibald, 38
Thoreau, Henry David, 45, 48, 55, 75
tiger: demand for bones, 72
Toulouse, 190
Town and Country Planning Act (1947), 89
Transcendentalists, 45
Tunnicliffe, Charles F., 37, 39, 42, 49
Shorelands Summer Diary, 39
Turner, Gill, 138–40
Tutt, J. W.: British Butterlies, 99
United Nations
Millennium Ecosystems Assessment, 25, 27
‘Our Common Future’ (report, 1987), 21
World Urbanization Prospects, 126
United States of America
and agricultural poisons, 93
farming and wildernesses separated, 89
urbanisation, 125–7
Vatican Council, Second (1962), 54
Vincent, Kate, 115–16
Virunga National Park, (Democratic Republic of Congo), 244
Viscri, Transylvania, 210
Vivaldi, Antonio Lucio: Nulla in mundo pax sincera (motet), 217
wagtail
pied, 39
yellow, 38
Wain, Martin, 234
Wainwright, Dave, 234
Wales: character, 51–2
Walker, Kevin, 98
Walter, Michael, 236
Warne, Frederick & Co. (publishers), 37–8
Watkins-Pitchford, Denys (‘BB’)
Down the Bright Stream, 12, 170
The Little Grey Men, 11–12, 170
Watts, Bernard, 235
Waugh, Evelyn: Brideshead Revisited, 224
Deraniyagala’s beaked, 207
Perrin’s beaked, 207
rare species, 207
spade-toothed, 206
Wheeler, Alwyne, 183–4
Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire, 243
wild flowers
decline and extinction in Britain, 97–100
development, 156
species numbers, 160
Wilderness Act (USA, 1964), 48
Wilderness Water, Berkshire, 186–7
wildernesses and wild places, 42–8, 75
wildlife
British recording schemes, 97
losses in Britain, 87–9, 96–100, 106
Wildlife and Wetlands Trust, Gloucestershire see Slimbridge
Williamson, Henry, 173
willow warbler, 39
wonder, 194–7, 201, 203, 209–13
woodpecker, ivory-billed, 205, 207
wood-warblers, 162–3
Woodward, Bob, 27
Wordsworth, William, 6, 44, 158, 210
Worldwide Fund for Nature (earlier World Wildlife Fund), 110
Wrangel Island, Siberia, 206
wryneck: near-extinction in Britain, 97