Did Ancient Cultures Keep Pet Birds? Yes! Yes! Yes!

This was too good not to share.


My pet Rosy Bourkes.

Rosie.birds@gmail.com received an inquiry about where to find info on pet birds kept by ancient cultures. My husband, author E.G. Lewis, is a guru on ancient Roman culture and he answered for me. If you're also interested in pet birds kept in first century Rome ... here you go:

"My wife forwarded your request to me since her post on the Splendid Bourke Bird Blog was derived from one I did for my Sowing the Seeds Blog, here: 

 

http://eglewis.blogspot.com/search/label/Pets%20in%20the%20Ancient%20World

 

As you read it, you will notice that some of the conclusions are based on logical assumptions as much as anything else. The Bible references, Job for instance, assumes that if someone asks, “Can you make a pet of him like a bird?” it must have been a common practice. Alexander the Great’s connection to parrots is well documented. I conduct most of my research via the internet., but I can offer a few print sources.

The Amores by Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso…commonly known as Ovid. In Book II, Elegy VI, he laments the death of his lover’s pet parrot. A hard copy would probably be available at your local library. If you simply need the quote, it can be found here: http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/AmoresBkII.htm#anchor_Toc520535838 You can also download a copy at the site.

 Gaius Valerius Catullus, another Roman poet, mention his love’s pet sparrow in section 2-3. It can be accessed here:  http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:The_poems_of_Catullus

Here is one book I came across: Parrot Culture: Our 2500-Year-Long Fascination with the World's Most Talkative Bird, By Bruce Boehrer,  University of Pennsylvania Press.  It is available on Amazon as a used hardback for $2-$4. It is also available on Google books.

Finally, I’ll suggest another internet resource:  www.unrv.com  is a site entirely devoted to the Roman Empire. If you want to take the time to search out a page that deals with day-to-day Roman life, etc., or you can post a question and hopefully get several responses. I’ve used them for my novels when I can’t find an answer anywhere else."

 

Lastly, this is Gail again, here is a link to my husband's site on Amazon.com. He has nine books in print and as ebooks. Some are also now in audio. Blessings, Gail  

 

http://www.amazon.com/E.-G.-Lewis/e/B0037BDQGY/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1424720867&sr=1-2-ent

 

Author, E.G. Lewis. -- My husband, Ed,
with  our wonderful Chinook.

 

 

PET BIRDS IN THE FIRST CENTURY: African Greys, Alexandrine Parrots & Lovebirds

I admit that I didn't write this post. Because it's about birds, I borrowed it from my husband's first century historical site:  http://seedsofchristianity.com/wordpress/

PET BIRDS IN HISTORY

An African Grey Parrot in the wild.

Birds have been popular pets from earliest times. Hieroglyphic records indicate the Egyptians kept them 4,000 or more years ago. The Romans also kept many varieties of birds as pets. Parrots were most popular because of their color, but they also kept crows, magpies and starlings because they, too, could learn to repeat words. Pet birds were so highly prized, that in wealthy Roman households sometimes a slave’s only assignment was to care for the birds and teach them to talk. The common man, without the connections and affluence required to obtain the more exotic specimens, would have made do with native species such as finches, doves, etc.

The ancient Jews clearly kept pet birds. Duet 22:6 warns, “If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road…and the mother is sitting on the young…do not take the mother with the young.” Robbing a nest would have been a common way to acquire birds for pets or resale. Job 41:15 asks, “Can you make a pet of him like a bird?” And Jeremiah 5:27 says, “Like cages full of birds…”

WHERE THE BIRDS CAME FROM

A large portion of Europe was under Roman control, but the northern latitudes don’t have the colorful birds most favored as pets. And two modern sources of exotic birds, Australia and South America were both unknown. However, Rome’s influence extended into Africa which is home to a variety of colorful parrot species.

Currently, one of the most popular parrots is the African Grey. They are generally acknowledged to be among the smartest of all birds and are known to have vocabularies of up to 500 words. They surely would have been popular in Roman times as well.

An Abysinnian Parrot

Africa is also home to nine species of Poicephalus, or short tailed, parrots. Widely dispersed, several of these species exist in slightly different forms so that they represent a total of 24 varieties when the subspecies are included. One example in this group is the Abyssinian Parrot. It lives wild in northwest Somalia, across northern Ethiopia and into the Sudan. They generally live in areas that are lightly forested and, though this species generally travels in small groups, they sometimes gather in flocks of over a thousand birds. Abyssinian parrots belong to the ring- necked subspecies and are commonly kept as pets.

A wild Lovebird looking out from
hole in tree with nest.

Lovebirds, Psittaccidae Agapornis, are also native to Africa. There are nine subspecies of lovebirds, meaning that these beautiful and popular birds can be found in a wide variety of colors and colorations. They are intelligent, affectionate, and playful little birds who form strong bonds with their owners. 

THE PARTHIAN CONNECTION

The eastern boundary of the Roman Empire butted up against the realm of the Parthians. This area was once part of Alexander the Great’s Empire. Following the death of Alexander, Parthia became a Seleucid governorate under Nicanor. Their sphere of influence extended from the boundaries of Roman Syria to the Indus River.

The Alexandrine Parakeet or Alexandrian Parrot is named after Alexander the Great, who is credited with exporting the birds from Punjab into various European & Mediterranean countries. Given their relationship with Alexander, they became prized possessions of nobles and royalty. The species name eupatria translates to noble ancestry.



The Ultimate Gift an Alexandrine Parrot



The Alexandrine Parrot is a larger version of both the Indian and African Ringneck. They look so much like their smaller cousins that they are sometimes accidentally classified as one of their more popular cousins. All Alexandrine Parrots exhibit the classic ringneck look: dark green bodies, long tails, red beaks, and yellow eyes. The only difference between them and their smaller relatives are their maroon patched wings and larger bills.



One of the Alexandrine’s smaller cousins, the Indian Ringneck Parakeet, can speak so clearly that once monks considered them sacred after hearing one repeat their daily prayers. This big talking, medium-sized bird is capable of reciting long and complicated excerpts from books, poetry, and scripture.

Indian Ringnecks Can Recite
Long Passages of Scripture

By the First Century, Rome had several hundred merchants ships traveling across the Red Sea to India to import pepper. It’s not hard to imagine a bird trader wandering the docks with a cage of birds that he’d trapped and tamed. Who better to sell them to than foreign merchants docked at the harbor?

The merchants would transport the birds back to the Egyptian port of Bernike and resell them to someone heading for Rome or any of the other capitols of the Empire. After all, if Herod the Great were in Rome and happened to see the talking bird Caesar had, wouldn’t he want one too? And if it were the current fashion, wouldn’t Pontius Pilate’s wife, Claudia Procula, want some lovebirds dangling from her ceiling in a gilded cage? Just because they were living out in the sticks didn’t mean she had to live like a peasant. Besides, who did she have to talk to all day? Pontius was always tied up with paperwork, centurions and that high priest, Caiphas…



So were the early Christians familiar with exotic pet birds? The answer is clearly, Yes they were. Did they own them? Maybe, maybe not. Some Christians came from elite families and could have easily afforded to purchase such a pet. Others were poor and would have had to make do with sparrows, wrens, finches, and doves.

Traditional tells us Saint John kept homing pigeons as a hobby. What about the boy Jesus? Did Joseph perhaps construct a cage out of willow branches and wood scraps to house the little desert finch Jesus brought home? It’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility.

Historic Bird Facts From Many Countries

Hello all,

I have loved and raised birds for decades and sometimes wonder where it all began. Do you? I thought a Series about the domestication of birds throughout the world would be interesting. There is so much information that one country at a time will fill a post. To get this started, however, let’s do several snippets of Bird History from several of those countries.

PART I - In the Beginning



Red Jungle Fowl, Thailand

ASIA: Some researchers believe that the first domesticated birds were an Asian fowl, most likely from Thailand, and kept for egg production. People learned it was easier to keep them penned up then hunt all over for their eggs. It is surmised that this occurred more than four thousand years ago. No doubt fowl that nested on the ground were easier to catch and keep than birds that nested in treetops and were strong fliers. Also, unlike many other birds, their chicks could eat on their own as soon as they hatched.

Gradually, over time, people came to recognize personality differences in their fowl. They would have had favorites and eventually selected some as pets. Then they began to wonder about those high flyers and what they might be like.



Throwing a Bola with a net.




A Bola around the legs for large birds.





Water birds could have been caught with “bola's” (ropes with stones at each end) thrown around their legs. Grass nets could have been thrown over smaller birds as they scratched for seed on the ground. Or, young birds were snatched from their nests. Perhaps many died until people learned how and what to feed them. A more successful method may have been to wait and watch until the youngsters were newly fledged and then grab them. Whatever the method, birds have been domesticated for millennia.

EGYPT: The ancient Egyptians kept birds as pets 4-5,000 or more years ago. Parrots and doves frequently appear in their hieroglyphics, and there were probably others. As you may know, the Egyptians thought highly of their pet cats, often mummifying them. Did the cats bother their birds? Parrots can easily intimidate cats, but gentle doves or pigeons are another story.

 

These aren't our kitties, but cute.

Over the past 30 years, I’ve had seven cats (not all at once) and each of them learned to leave our birds alone…even the adult strays we adopted. I’m confident that Egyptian households at that time also kept cats and birds that were able to live in close proximity without a serious problem.

A Common Mynah Bird. There are many kinds.

INDIA: In India the Mynah has been considered sacred for at least 2,000 years.

In the 1950’s Mynah birds were frequent pets in the United States, and probably elsewhere. Their ability to mimic made them popular. However, their popularity quickly waned, possibly because they are messier than many other birds.

I remember visiting California’s San Diego Zoo in the 1960’s and seeing several round aviaries with wire dividing segments the way you’d cut a pie. In each separate segment was one Mynah bird. A metal plaque was attached to the front of each bird’s cage. It gave their name, the words they could repeat, and noted that they were relinquished by their owners (i.e., no longer wanted). It was obvious that, unlike other animals at the zoo, every effort was made to prevent the Mynah’s from repopulating. 

Wild Ring-necked Parakeet.

ROME: If you read the earlier post on “Ancient Aviculture,” you know that pigeons were kept and bred by the millions in the time of Ancient Rome. Romans also kept many varieties of pet birds. Parrots were most popular, but they also kept crows, magpies and starlings because they, too, could learn to repeat words. Even the lower classes often kept birds as pets. They could include pet chickens, quail, geese and a variety of colorful finches. Ring-necked parakeets were imported from India and also became popular.

Where did their other birds come from? A large portion of Europe was under Roman control, but the northern latitude doesn’t have all the colorful birds we now have as pets. Australia was unknown as was South America. Pet birds in Rome would have had to come from China, the Indian subcontinent, or Africa. More than likely, the parrots most often kept by them were African greys.

Pet birds were so highly prized, that in wealthy Roman households sometimes a slave’s only assignment was to care for the birds and teach them to talk. Not a bad responsibility really. If I had to be a slave, I can’t imagine a better assignment.

Song Thrush. There are many varieties of Thrush.

CHINA: Through several Chinese dynasties, and over many thousands of years, the Chinese domesticated numerous varieties of birds. From discovered artworks, it seems the more colorful the bird, the more popular it was as a caged pet. Their writings also praise the less colorful Nightingales and Thrushes, valued for their beautiful songs.

Nightingale.

Chinese fisherman with Cormorant. Notice ring around neck.

Additionally, Chinese artwork shows Cormorants retrieving fish for men and women on rafts or sampans. This form of fishing is still being done in China today. A ring is put around the bird’s long neck to prevent it from swallowing larger fish. Hence, when the bird returns to the surface, the fisherman retrieves the bird and any fish it can’t swallow are pushed out of its throat. One assumes either the smaller fish are enough to sustain it, or the fisherman later shares the catch. The larger fish feed the fisherman's family, and hopefully there are plenty left over to sell.

Why doesn't the Cormorant fly away, you ask? Either their wings are clipped, or there is a rope around their leg, or both. The birds are also handled and trained from a very young age. They expect to return to the fisherman and don't stray far from his craft.

A Falcon reward?

Falcons, too, helped feed the Chinese. You’ve all seen how a Falcon can snatch a bird in mid-air. They can be trained to return to their owner and share their catch … maybe a duck, dove or other wildfowl. Poor Chinese were, perhaps, using Falcons to help acquire food long before Europeans adapted Falconry as a sport. In fact, records indicate the Chinese were using Falcon's as long ago as 700BC.

Today, the Chinese still maintain a friendship with birds and many seniors are seen in parks “airing” a wide variety of pet birds by carrying them around in cages which are sometimes hung in trees while both owners and birds visit with one another.

Sarus Cranes of Pakistan.

PAKISTAN: Pet Cranes are portrayed in ancient artwork from the Harappan Civilization along the Indus River of current day Pakistan and western India. Ancient pottery from this region also depicts ducks and other waterfowl. Most common, especially on their cemetery stones, are Peacocks.

Wild Alexandrine Parakeet.

MACEDONIA AND GREECE: Alexander the Great is said to have received a parakeet as a pet. It is believed to be what we now call the Alexandrine parakeet. Possibly in a later post we will cover more about this parakeet, how Alexander acquired it, and the area it inhabits.

Until next time, Peace & Blessings.