Many readers of this list relish wild birds--at times--because they can provide relief from our fellow humans. We are gradually abandoning some old habits of relishing them for the dinner table. Some proof of this comes from a romp through "The Market Assistant, containing a brief description of every article of human food sold in the public markets of the cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn; including the various Domestic and Wild Animals, Poultry, Game, Fish, Vegetables, Fruits, &c, &c, with many curious incidents and anecdotes" by Thomas F. De Voe, published in 1867. Pages 145-180 cover birds*. These pages relate the huge variety of wild birds then sold as food (or specimens for taxidermy), from wildfowl to owls to eagles, over 120 species. An item on p. 172 on the green heron, or "schyte-poke," is followed by a lengthy treatment of the passenger pigeon ("the wild squabs, when fat and fresh, are very delicate eating"). The "Esquimaux Curlew, Futes, or doe-bird," is "well flavored, and the best of all the curlews" p. 168. There is even a section on "Birds which are seldom or never used here as human food." Lurking behind all these accounts is a portrait of our own species, needless to say. Bill Whan Columbus *The Assistant can be found at http://books.google.com/books?id=2z4EAAAAYAAJ&q=loon#v=snippet&q=grebe&f=false ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]