Jean Piatt

In 1973, Jean Piatt was Professor of Anatomy in the School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. He was born in Ohio, educated in the public schools of Indianapolis, and his college education was obtained at Butler University, Havorford College, and Yale University. His hobby, shared with his wife, Marybelle, is birding.

Birders are wont to say it was this bird or that which first aroused their interest and set their feet along the glory trail toward the big list or, perhaps, simply dancing along some mysterious path of their own choosing in unpurposed fulfillment&emdash;there are many kinds of birders. Adventures in Birding, 1973.

 

Do not importune with that old bromide about more lumber for more houses for more people. In plain truth, what we need, man and beast, is less lumber for less houses for less people. Ibid.

 

There is no problem of major proportion today that is not compounded tenfold by population pressure. Ibid.

 

Personally, I want no part of a society that cheers the birth of its two hundred millionth citizen at a time when the earth is overrun by pullulating humanity. Ibid.

 

Egocentric, belligerent, arrogant man, the only voyager in the Ark educated beyond his intelligence. The Greeks had a word for it . . . they called it hubris, excessive pride. It did not please the gods. Ibid.

 

Discovery is always a potent elixir and for the birding neophyte Media, Pennsylvania, can be as alluring as Zanzibar, or the Galapagos Islands are for the hierophant&emdash;and, we had scarcely set foot within the temple door. Ibid.

 

Extinction of a species is a terrifying finality, Once gone, it is irrevocably lost. Forever and forever lost. Ibid.

 

Birding takes one out of doors; it satisfies the craving of every decent person to brush the morning dew from the grass and inhale what is left of our pure air. It is an engrossing pastime and one never wearies of it but only from it. Ibid.

 

Adventure wears many garbs. And the truly great adventures are within ourselves. Birding is an introduction to this truth. Yes, you have guessed it. Birding is the adventure of one's self. Ibid.