North African Bird Lore: New Light On Old Problems

Abstract

THE essential message of this article'is quite simple. I would like to make four points. The first is that North West Africa, by which I mean that region to the south of the Mediterranean which today constitutes the Islamic states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, is without question the richest storehouse of folk traditions in our western world; the second is that these traditions are not only directly relevant to European folklore but are often vital to its proper understanding; the third, that so far they have remained almost wholly unexploited for this purpose; and finally that, with the dramatic social changes which are at present taking place in these countries, unless an urgent effort is made over the next few years to collect them it will soon no longer be possible to do so and they will be irretrievably lost both to ourselves and to all future generations of scholars.