As the Field Notes indicate, the research undertaken for this novel has been multifarious, involving reading from scholarly and non-scholarly sources, as well as discussions with colleagues and friends. Both the tacit and the explicit material needs to be acknowledged more formally. I take the opportunity here to cite my research and to thank those people who shaped and challenged the writing.

 

The epigraphs for the novel are from William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’ (1961 [1820]) and Theodore Roethke’s ‘Meditations of an Old Woman: First Meditation’ (1961[1958]). The latter is reprinted by permission from Faber and Faber Ltd and Penguin Random House, copyright © 1955 by Theodore Roethke; used by permission of Doubleday, an imprint of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

My capacity to engage with the ideas in this book is only possible because of my involvement in the Centre for Critical Creative Practice (C3P) at the University of Wollongong, and in particular its Material Ecologies (MECO) research strand. Many, many thanks to Sue Turnbull and Su Ballard, co-directors of the centre, and especially to the MECO practitioners and thinkers who have taught me so much about birds (as well as about trees, wombats, weather patterns, ghosts, plastic bags, drones and Alexa devices). The project really began as we walked and worked together at Bundanon. Thank you Su Ballard, Louise Boscacci, Brogan Bunt, Nicky Evans, Agnieszka Golda, Mike Griffiths, Eva Hampel, Lucas Ihlein, Madeleine Kelly, Jo Law, Cath McKinnon, Ted Mitew, Chris Moore, Jo Stirling and Kim Williams.

The project came alive when Melissa Boyde gave me her support and shared her insights with me. Melissa, thank you for your limitless enthusiasm and generous championing of the work. Without your interest I would not have pushed myself to think about all the implications of writing about human and nonhuman animals. As will be seen from my references below, the project has been informed, extended and cajoled by many essays in Animal Studies Journal, so I thank you for including my work in this space.

From Sydney University Press, thanks to Fiona Probyn-Rapsey and Melissa Boyde for rich and insightful editorial advice, and for pushing me to think beyond myself. Thanks to Agata Mrva-Montoya, Denise O’Dea and Alexandra Guzmán for patience and generosity. Thanks to Louise Thurtell for extraordinary copy editing.

The work flourished during my LitLink Residential Fellowship at Varuna in 2016. Thank you to Jansis O’Hanlon, Vera Costello and Sheila Atkinson for kindness and food! Thank you to Denise Young, Michelle Haines Thomas, Diana Jarman and Hayley Lawrence for sharing wonderful nights reading and eating. Special thanks to Peter Bishop for talking about music and for calling this book a novel.

Thanks to Noel Broadhead from the University of Wollongong Library for his copyright advice and enthusiasm for the project (especially the kookaburra story).

Thanks to Anne Collett, who gave me the ‘Birds’ issue of Kunapipi at exactly the time I needed it. The collection of essays and poems in this issue informed and enriched all of the stories here, directly and indirectly.

Thank you to my Creative Writing and English Literatures colleagues at the University of Wollongong (staff and students) who work so hard and are always generous with their time and collegiality. Thanks to the following for listening to and reading drafts and knowing what I’m going through: A.J. Corradini, Shady Cosgrove, Daniel Fudge, Chloe Higgins, Chrissy Howe, Luke Johnson, Susie Lenehan, Cath McKinnon, Scott Tahvanainen, Alan Wearne and Ika Willis.

Thanks to Andrew Craig and the other swimmers at the Continental Pool for many, many conversations about birds. (Sorry I couldn’t include the pelican story.)

Thanks to Tara Palajda, Jo Durtnell-Smydzuk, Alli Knaggs, Jacinta Landon and Jenny Gales for keeping me sane during the writing process. The work is dedicated to Jenny.

Special thanks to my trusted readers Kate O’Donnell, Cathy Hunt and Dayne Kelly: I depend on you. Thank you, Kate, for the multiple conversations about every aspect of the work, and especially for workshopping of the last line with me.

Extraordinary thanks to Amy Kersey for her extraordinary birds in this book. They are truly the greatest things in the world. Thank you, Amy.

Thanks to Damien, Hershey and Honey for their patience when I’m away and their love when I come home.

What He Heard

The epigraph for the story is from David Mitchell’s novel Black Swan Green. Copyright © 2007 by David Mitchell. Reprinted by permission from Hodder and Stoughton Limited (worldwide) and from Penguin Random House (USA).

A version of the story appeared in Animal Studies Journal in 2015. Thanks to Melissa Boyde. It was written on a retreat organised by the MECO network at UOW. Thanks especially to Su Ballard and Kim Williams.

I’m grateful to Shady Cosgrove, Scott Bazley and Seattle Brooks Bazley for their hospitality sharing their cabin at Wombeyan. I’m especially grateful to Sterling for telling the ghost story, and to Dai Fan for listening to it with me.

Six Stories about Birds, with Seven Questions

The epigraph for the story is from Freya Mathews’ ‘Living with Animals’ (1997).

The statistics I cite at the end of the story are from Adrian Franklin’s 2007 essay ‘Relating to Birds in Postcolonial Australia’. I also cite Professor Mike Archer from the Australian Museum; this quotation is taken from Franklin’s essay.

Other texts inform the stories within the story:

Cinderella

The main version I used was from Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm’s The Complete Fairy Tales (2007).

I allude to the Grimm stories ‘The Three Languages’, ‘The Seven Ravens’, ‘The Golden Bird’ and ‘Hansel and Gretel’.

I also refer to Shaena Lambert’s ‘Kublai Khan and the Sun Bird: A Fairy Tale’ (2001) and Fernán Caballero’s ‘The Bird of Truth’ (2002).

New Caledonian Crows

The two YouTube clips featuring David Attenborough are real and can be found at https://bit.ly/THXr6z and https://bit.ly/2Otk7c2. Thanks to Su for sending them to me.

I cite directly Alex Weir, Jackie Chappell and Alex Kacelnik’s 2002 article ‘Shaping of Hooks in New Caledonian Crows’.

Birds of Paradise

I cite directly Alfred Russel Wallace’s The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan, and the Bird of Paradise. A Narrative of Travel, with Sketches of Man and Nature (1869) and Oliver Goldsmith’s A History of the Earth, and Animated Nature (1825).

The newspaper article the narrator refers to is a fiction.

Thanks to Yaron Lifschitz for giving me an internship at the Australian Museum all those years ago, and telling me the story of the legless birds.

St Kevin and the Blackbird

I cite two lines from Seamus Heaney’s poem, ‘St Kevin and the Blackbird’ (1992). Reprinted by permission from Faber and Faber Ltd.

The Siege of Acre

I cite directly T.A. Archer’s The Crusade of Richard I, 1189–92 (1889) and Helen Macdonald’s Falcon (2016 [2006]).

I also draw upon the discussion of the Crusades in Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk (2014). The documentary the narrator watches is fictitious.

Thanks to Louise D’Arcens for introducing me to H is for Hawk and to the story of Philip and Saladin.

The Swan and the Goose

Thanks to Pamela Mildenhall and the Con Voci Chamber Choir for introducing me to the story. I’ve drawn heavily on the bittersweet melody in Bob Chilcott’s musical version of story, first performed in 2008.

Call and Response

The epigraph for the story is from Don Stap’s Birdsong: A Natural History (2005).

‘Call and Response’ is based on walks into the Leura Valley taken during my stay at Varuna, the Writer’s House. I’ve moved the sign from its location near the Ferber Steps and added a few words. Apologies to the lyrebirds who were taken out of the story.

Flocking

The epigraph for the story is from Shakespeare’s Hamlet Act V, Scene ii.

In the story, I quote from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, John Keats’ ‘Bright Star’ and T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’. The last poem is reprinted by permission from Faber and Faber Ltd.

Thanks to State of Play for letting me watch them flock. This story is for Denise Young—not for the Drama, but for her kindness to me when I was a young man.

Do You Speak My Language?

The epigraph for the story is from David Wills’ ‘Meditations for the Birds’ (2011).

Special thanks to John Littrich, School of Law, University of Wollongong for explaining legal processes to me and providing me with many resources for the story.

I have referenced several legal, critical and creative works directly in the story. I cite them here in order of appearance:

The episode of Spicks and Specks was broadcast on 26 September 2007. Part of the episode can be seen at https://bit.ly/2J670r6.

A summary of the judgement from the original case, Larrikin Music Publishing Pty Ltd v EMI Songs Australia Pty Limited (2010) FCA 29, can be found at https://bit.ly/2pU2i7k.

Michael Leunig is quoted in Nicolas Suzor and Rachel Choi’s ‘The Down Under Book and Film remind us our Copyright Laws are still Unfair for Artists’ (2015).

The Facebook page I refer to does exist and is still accessible. I invented some of the postings.

Colin Hay’s comment that the costs for the case were ‘something like sixty grand’ is cited in Justice James Edelman’s 2016 paper ‘The Nature and Function of Intellectual Property: Lessons from Down Under’, presented at the Intellectual Property Society of Australia and New Zealand Inc.

The YouTube clip featuring Piedmont High warblers is real and can be found at https://bit.ly/2P05e0r.

The Girl Guides judges’ comments and letter from the Executive Committee of the Girl Guides comes from the summary of the judgement from the case Larrikin Music Publishing Pty Ltd v EMI Songs Australia Pty Limited (2009) FCA 799. This can be found at https://bit.ly/2CQRKOy.

Marion Sinclair’s statement that ‘Kookaburra’ is ‘not composed by me’ is from P.A. Howell’s ‘Sinclair, Marion (1896–1988)’ (2012).

A summary of the judgement from the appeal case EMI Songs Australia Pty Limited v Larrikin Music Publishing Pty Limited (2011) FCAFC 47 can be found at https://bit.ly/2PFGuHJ.

The story about the kookaburra and the lyrebird can be found in ‘Aboriginal Legends: The Kookaburra’, published in the Argus in 1952.

The statement made by the managing director of Larrikin Music is from Justice Edelman’s presentation at the Intellectual Property Society of Australia and New Zealand Inc. (see above).

The study of mimicry as ‘parasitic deception’ is from Anastasia Dalziell, Justin Welbergen, Branislav Igic and Robert Magrath’s ‘Avian Vocal Mimicry: A Unified Conceptual Framework’ (2015).

The notion of ‘the commons’ comes from Jonathan Lethem’s ‘The Ecstasy of Influence’ (2007).

The discussion of kookaburra ‘joint songs’ comes from Myron C. Baker’s ‘The Chorus Song of Cooperatively Breeding Laughing Kookaburras (Coraciiformes, Halcyonidae: Dacelo Novaeguineae): Characterization and Comparison Among Groups’ (2004).

The concept of ‘warblish’ comes from Hannah Sarvasy’s ‘Warblish: Verbal Mimicry of Birdsong’ (2016). The warblish phrases I used are from Sarvasy’s text (including Shit a Brick!) and also taken from Abby P. Churchill’s Birds in Literature (1911).

The Australian Law Reform Commission report Copyright and the Digital Economy is reprinted by permission ALRC.

Sandra Day O’Connor is cited by Jonathan Lethem (see above).

Lydia Goehr, Jim Samson and Jonathan Lethem are cited in Chris May’s ‘Jurisprudence V Musicology: Riffs from the Land Down Under’ (2017).

The notion of ‘entrainment to rhythms’ is from Jonathan I. Benichov, Eitan Globerson and Ofer Tchernichovski’s ‘Finding the Beat: From Socially Coordinated Vocalizations in Songbirds to Rhythmic Entrainment in Humans’ (2016).

Greg Ham’s statement is quoted in ‘Flute Riff Left a Sour Note for Ham’ (2012).

Further to Fly

The title for the story is borrowed from Paul Simon’s song ‘Further to Fly’ from his album The Rhythm of the Saints. The epigraph is from Euripides’ Phoenissae (lines 1515–1525), translated by E.P. Coleridge.

A version of the story appeared in Southerly in 2017. Thanks to Melissa Boyde for championing my work, and also Elizabeth McMahon and Michelle Hamadache.

Apologies to Sarah Miller and my father for stealing their cars and using them in the story.

The Pecking Order

The epigraph for the story is from Carol J. Adams’ ‘The War on Compassion’ (2014).

As discussed in my field notes, I am also indebted to the work of Ralph Acampora, Carol J. Adams, Karen Davis, Philip Armstrong, Hayley Singer and especially Annie Potts for their engagement with the lives and deaths of chickens and other nonhuman animals.

For the depiction of chickens’ behaviour (especially ‘tidbitting’), I have drawn upon Carolynn L. Smith’s ‘Referential Signalling in Birds: The Past, Present and Future’ (2017).

Nocturne

The epigraph is from John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi (Act I, Scene i, 30).

The lines from the poet belong to Mark Tredinnick’s ‘Days in the Plateau’ (2007). His story of the tawny frogmouth also made its way into his extraordinary The Blue Plateau: A Landscape Memoir (2009). Reprinted by kind permission from the author.

Again, I quote from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, John Keats’ ‘Bright Star’ and T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’. The last poem is reprinted by permission from Faber and Faber Ltd.

I was introduced to the story of the bird of sorrow through Ignácz Kúnos’s Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales (1913). I have adapted the story to serve my purposes.

Thanks to Olena Cullen for giving me her office and showing me the birds outside the window. These tawny frogmouths have saved my life on a number of occasions.

Magpies

The epigraph for the story is from Gisela Kaplan’s Australian Magpie: Biology and Behaviour of an Unusual Songbird (2004). Reprinted by kind permission from the author.

I’ve taken the majority of the information about magpies from Kaplan’s book and I’ve given Peter a few of her key phrases. Thanks to Gisela Kaplan for her observations on and insights into the story.

Thanks to Diana Jarman for telling me that magpies are ‘much maligned’ creatures.

And No Birds Sing

The title of the story is from John Keats’ ‘La Belle Dame San Merci’. The epigraph is from ‘The Annunciation’ by W.S. Merwin, collected in The First Four Books of Poems. Copyright © 1975 W.S. Merwin, used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.

As discussed in my field notes, I acknowledge the work of Rick De Vos, Ursula K. Heise, Fiona Probyn-Rapsey and Thom van Dooren for enriching this story.

There is no definitive list of extinct birds, but I am grateful to the following sources:

Avibase: The World Bird Database: https://bit.ly/2CQCmlk

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: www.iucnredlist.org

Ornithology: The Science of Birds: https://bit.ly/2PFGNCn

Any errors in the list are my own.

Virginia Woolf’s suicide note can be found in her obituary in the New York Times (3 April 1941) and at: https://nyti.ms/1lLVvWY.

I quote two lines from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Reprinted by permission from Faber and Faber Ltd.

I am grateful to Richard, who drove me to Concord Hospital.

Aves Admittant

The epigraph is from John Berger’s Ways of Seeing (1972).

Thanks to Jo Stirling for introducing me to the Gould’s petrel and telling me stories about her trip to Cabbage Tree Island. Many thanks to Nicholas Carlile, island ecologist, from the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage, for his immense generosity in sharing his research and ideas with me. The supervisor in the story is definitely not Nicholas, but I have given many of Nicholas’s stories to the character. Any mistranslations are my own. Special thanks for inviting me to Cabbage Tree Island: I have rearranged some places on the island, invented a few spaces and simplified a few of the practicalities. Thanks to the Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong, for funding my study leave.

The story was shaped by Nicholas’s research on the Gould’s petrel, especially:

The Flight of Birds

The epigraph is from the song ‘It Never Was You’ from the musical Knickerbocker Holiday, music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Maxwell Anderson.

I came across the original tale in Katharine Briggs’ British Folk-Tales and Legends (1977).

As with the other fairy tales, I have adapted it to serve the young man’s circumstances—but Briggs’ ending is as ambiguous as mine.

Thanks to Su, for linking my vision to art history: in particular for directing me towards Merleau-Ponty.

A version of the story appeared in Animal Studies Journal in 2014. Thanks, again, to Melissa Boyde for her swift and overwhelmingly kind response to the story. Thanks also to Cathy Cole for suggesting I submit the story.

Thanks to Amy for buying crusty bread the night when I came home on the bus.