Four or five hundred years ago Spanish sailors hauled home some grayish/ greenish/ yellowish birds resembling house finches from the Canary Islands. Then, apparently not knowing what else to do with them, gave them to some monks. Who, apparently having too much time on their hands, bred them to their now familiar bright yellow color.
Perhaps they thought if they put a pretty bird with a beautiful song in a cage it could become a serious cash crop. It did.
They are still popular cage birds. All over the world. And there are still plenty of wild grayish/greenish/yellow ones in the Canary Islands (plus a few other places). But they don’t live wild in North America. Of any color. So if you should happen to see one flying around here, you can assume Sylvester left Tweety’s cage door open.
In 1920, apparently appreciating their value, an inmate at Leavenworth Prison named Robert Stroud began to buy, raise, and sell them. Later known as the notorious Bird Man of Alcatraz, Stroud raised nearly 300 of them in his cell. Yes. In his cell. As an amateur ornithologist he also studied and wrote extensively about them. In 1943 he published a treatise that was widely accepted as an important contribution to the field of ornithology. This caused ornithologists to see him as one of their own. They felt an affinity for him despite his crimes. Some 50,000 birders signed a petition to Herbert Hoover on his behalf. Plus many clamored for his release.
But truth be told he was not a nice man. A diagnosed psychopath, he had killed a bartender over a small amount of money by knocking him out in a fight then shooting him in the head. Point blank. He continued to be violent in prison, intimidating and threatening fellow prisoners. He assaulted and knifed several. Then in 1916 he killed a prison guard by stabbing him in the heart. He was moved to Alcatraz and kept in solitary the rest of his life.
Ok so he liked birds. Don’t we all. But it’s hard to imagine that letting him go sounded like a good idea to anyone.
But that’s beside the point.
What is it then?
It seems obvious to me... Don’t mess with ornithologists!
