Flights of fantasy

THERE’S something a little unnerving about the birds that appear in our best-loved literature—and it’s not only the hysteria of squawking, honking and gobbling, the flying feathers or even the menacing beaks. There’s their disconcerting ability to talk (actually talk, no literary permission required…) and superior aerial view of life on dry land, but, perhaps most of all, it’s their tendency to symbolise something much greater than they seem. Cosier creatures might be scattered throughout literature as cheery extras, but not so with birds—they are a much-used tool for moral tales. Stumble across a feathered beast and they’ll almost always have something to say and a message to share.

The Dodo

When four birds appear aboard a boat in , mimicking the first time the story was told, in the summer of 1862, to the