‘Brumal’ means relating to the winter, and it was Forster who established that Swallows migrated to Africa, partly from making a chronology of the dates of accounts of the species from travellers.
16 : Observations on the Brumal Retreat of the Swallow by Thomas Forster
1808
‘Brumal’ means relating to the winter, and it was Forster who established that Swallows migrated to Africa, partly from making a chronology of the dates of accounts of the species from travellers.
After a birder has begun to identify birds in the field, and has accumulated often several field guides, the next step in many cases is to investigate a single group of birds, particularly hard-to-identify species. Traditionally this will involve a hefty cash investment in an ornithological monograph, an often doorstep-sized study of a single group or species in which the detailed labours of many observers and scientists over many years are combined to give as comprehensive a survey of current knowledge as possible.
The classic monographs for birders are those published by Collins in the robust and expansive New Naturalist series and also the highly collectible T & A D Poyser tomes, but new additions are constantly being released by other publishers too. This is a not a modern phenomenon, however – the history of recognisable bird monographs goes back to the 19th century, the first arguably being Observations on the Brumal Retreat of the Swallow by Thomas Forster (1808). This was a small volume in which the author presented evidence that Swallows migrated rather than hibernated in the mud at the bottom of lakes, including observations made by seafarers off the coast of Senegal who had seen the species there in October. He also itemised the known species of swallow, erroneously including Common Swift among them.
The great bird artists of the 19th century also published serious, copiously and beautifully illustrated monographs on popular bird groups, and sales of these expensive and limited edition tomes helped counter the costs of scientific illustration and documentation of some of that era’s expeditions of discovery. Gould is covered on pages 54–55, but special mention must go to Edward Lear’s Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae (1832) which featured 42 exquisitely and painstakingly accurate illustraions of parrots from private collections and zoos, a critical success but financial failure.
The accumulation of observations of behaviour, physiology and evolution of different bird groups during the late 19th century and throughout the 20th century, combined with the growing popularity of birdwatching, meant that the market was ripe for thorough summaries of information about favoured bird groups, and publishers began to publish many single-species guides after the Second World War.
Since then, extensive and comprehensive family and order guides have become popular, while taking advantage of photographic skills to supplement painted plates and field observations has allowed the plumage variations of each species in a family guide to be copiously illustrated in the early 21st century. Arguably, the trend may have reached its acme so far in the major Helm Identification Guide Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America by Klaus Malling Olsen and Hans Larsson.