Edward Allworthy Armstrong

Edward Allworthy Armstrong (8 October 1900 – 19 December 1978) was a British ornithologist, Church of England clergyman, and author of several books. He is noteworthy for his study of bird behaviour and his extensive study of the northern wren (for which he travelled to the Shetland Islands, St Kilda, and Iceland). In 1966 he received the Stamford Raffles Award.

Quotes

• The gulls which often accompany fishing mergansers are there for anything but philanthropic purposes. They float about among the ducks keeping a sharp eye on them, and no sooner does one appear with a fish than they flap over the wretched bird's head and so harry it that, quite often, the catch is dropped and the gulls devour it.
  • Birds of the Grey Wind (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. 1940. p. 107.  1st part of quote; last part of quote

• ... All large sociable birds make noticeable preparations when about to take wing, and some of these initiating movements have no apparent usefulness so far as rising from the ground or water is concerned. ... It is of great advantage to birds which migrate in flocks, such as geese, to take flight so far as possible simultaneously, and thus range themselves without delay into orderly squadrons. Moreover, the movements serve as a quiet hint of danger to neighbors when a bird sights a suspicious object. They have, in fact, a contagious effect. Large gaggles of geese in which one or other of the birds is constantly initiating flight in this way fly up much more often than small parties.
  • Bird Display: An Introduction to the Study of Bird Psychology. Cambridge University Press. 2015. ISBN 1107511577.  (pbk edition of 1942 edition entitled Bird Display and Behaviour)

• Some birds which feed on insects may bring food to the nest more than a thousand times in one day.
  • The Way Birds Live. Lindsay Drummond Ltd. 1943. p. 47.  (1st edition, 1943)

• There is nothing in Shakespeare's writings to suggest that he knew the red-legged chough. In his day the word "chough" was synonymous with jackdaw. Looking over the Dover cliffs he might have seen jackdaws, but is not likely to have seen crows. A close study of his ornithology has convinced me that personal observation played a very minor part, while traditional symbolism and folk-lore bulked large in his imagination. Incidentally, there is no indication of a personal acquaintance with any sea-bird. He mentions the cormorant but only as the symbol of greed. For what it is worth this negative evidence suggests that, contrary to the speculations of Brandes and other writers, Shakespeare had not much knowledge of the sea.
  • Shakespeare's Imagination: A Study of the Psychology of Association and Inspiration. London: Lindsay Drummond Ltd. 1946. p. 20 (footnote). 

• … Leto bore twin children, Apollo and Artemis, who had a sanctuary in common at Troy (Il. v. 445-448). Apollo also had twins by the Cretan woman Akukallis. Leda—another form of Leto—laid two eggs after consorting with Jupiter. Out of one came Castor and Pollux, out of the other Clytemnestra and Helena.
  • The Folklore of Birds: An Enquiry Into the Origin & Distribution of Some Magico-religious Traditions (2nd ed.). Dover Publications. 1970. p. 60. ISBN 0486221458.  (1st edition, 1958, William Collins, Sons & Company, Ltd.

• Those who would follow Christ must neither be unduly frightened by what is involved, nor rush into commitments which they will be unable to fulfil.
  • The Gospel Parables. Sheed and Ward. 1967. p. 102. 

• A rich store of Christian nature legends appeared throughout the centuries before the time of Saint Francis, and he was by no means the first saint to show compassion for animals; but the blossoming of Christian compassion for nature in the thirteenth century and the concentration of stories of this kind around the person of Francis, taken for granted by most writers, require explanation. Prior to his appearance, Italy had not been fertile in stories, true or apocryphal, telling of men and animals on friendly terms with one another, nor were Italians then any more renowned than they are now for their kindly treatment of birds and beasts. Why, then, should there have accumulated in connexion with a humble Umbrian friar a galaxy of stories of this kind?
  • Saint Francis: Nature Mystic. The derivation and significance of the nature stories in the Franciscan legend. Volume 2 of Hermeneutics: Studies in the History of Religions. University of California Press. 2023. p. 5. ISBN 0520313453.  (pbk reprint of 1973 1st edition, U. of California Press)

• ... Alexander the Great was said to have been guided across the desert to the oasis of Ammon by two ravens from heaven which encouraged stragglers with their croaking.
  • The Life and Lore of the Bird in Nature, Art, Myth, and Literature. Crown Publishers. 1975. p. 66.  1988 edition. Random House. ISBN 0517524341. 

A Study of Bird Song (1963)

• The Marsh Tit, Plain Tit, and some Willow Tits retain territory in winter and pair after occupying territory. Other species which abandon their breeding territories and flock in winter form pairs before they establish territory (Gibb 1956a).
  • A Study of Bird Song. Oxford University Press. 1963. p. 122.  (See: Gibb, John (July 1956). "Territory in the genus Parus". Ibis. DOI:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1956.tb01426.x.)

• On the whole, the first-rate songsters have the most elaborate equipment. The birds with the most syringeal muscles and greatest ability to move the membranes tend to produce the greatest variety of sounds.
  • p. 255

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Edward Allworthy Armstrong on Wikipedia
• Lunney, Linde (October 2009). "Armstrong, Edward Allworthy". Dictionary of Irish Biography. DOI:10.3318/dib.000216.v1.