DID YOU KNOW that pigeon post was part of India’s communications system until 2006? Or that cormorant droppings, imported from Peru as fertiliser, made one William Gibbs the richest non-nobleman in 19th-century Britain? Or, more alarmingly, that if human babies were fattened at the same rate as commercially farmed turkeys, by the age of 18 weeks they’d weigh 107 stone?
Stephen Moss’s wonderful new book is crammed with startling information like this. Each of the ten chapters centres on one bird—neatly chosen for its effect on human history—but they branch out from there. One, for instance,
