We in the West tend cattle and animals to see more and more like sweet hugs. There's nothing wrong with that. But hungry people around the world, see it differently.
For centuries the motto was: Small is beautiful, who don't Honor the small is not worth at all.


Finch (or caffinch) (Fringilla coelebs), is a passerine bird of about 15 cm, 20 grams heavy (or light) with a red breast, blue nape and crown, black forehead, and a double white wing band. It is a seed eater who, like almost all songbirds, feed its young on especially caterpillars (and bugs).

In the 17th century, finch sport arose. In the 18th and 19th centuries the eyelids were singed together for those song contests. (This would have been reversible?) It has been (by Halewijn Legend?) assume that "blind finches" were singing more beautiful.
Around the turn of the century this use disappeared. Happily.
From 1915 was played with seeing finches in blinded cages. After 1920, only ordinary cages were allowed.

About a hundred years ago, rich people ate finches as a delicacy. Hunting and fishing were a noble privilege. For poor people, these delicacies were way too expensive. They made finches from veal and called these blind finches. The name we know yet as a kind of meatloaf with a thin steak wrap. If there is bacon around, it is mentioned as roulades or beef olives (Dutch: salad finch).

“The skilled Kitchen Maid, New Citizen Cookbook” (edited by Johanna Rijneman, 1909) knows:
 "Serve you finch, you'll need ten per person."


Also sparrows (Passeridae) are a family (49 species) in the order of songbirds. The House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is a culture follower, 14 to 16 cm long, up to 30 grams. She has a gray crown and eye strips.

The Greek writer Anthimedes says that many people let the sparrows nesting on the walls of their home and gave them food. Later, the chickens were taken from the nest to devour them with relish.
In England the sparrow pot was probably introduced by the Dutch. (See <Trush pot>.) The Englishman Thomas Randolf, deceased in 1615, wrote that his beloved had breasts like sparrows pots.
This should probably make clear how they looked. The sparrows pots. Or the breasts.
At least they were in use then. The sparrows pots. Anyway...

Not that sparrows are not eaten any longer now.

Extract: Birds, 1998-6

There is definitive duty spoken in the case of 1,236,000 frozen Chinese Sparrows. Almost two years ago, the birds were discovered in a container in the port of Antwerp. The sparrows were destined for consumption and would be tought to Italy. The Dutch trader for game birds who exportedthem in June last year was acquitted because the sparrows in China and Italy are not protected. However, the RSPB Flanders and the prosecutor filed an appeal. On appeal, the defendant was fined 20,000 Belgian francs (1,100 guilders) for importing illegally the Sparrows in Belgium. Import is against the Flemish and European legislation. The frozen birds, with a value of 180,000 guilders, were confiscated and will be destroyed.


mussenpotMature great tits (Parus major) are approximately 14 centimeters tall, have a wingspan of 22.5 to 25.5 centimeters and a weight of about 20 grams. The great tit has a black head, white cheek patches, a yellow chest and on along a black belt.
Tit, blue tit,... belong to the same family. Tits see UV light. And eating masses insects: caterpillars, aphids...


For 12 pieces.
Prepare the pan on a low heat with garlic, bay leaf, pepper, olive oil. At a high fire brown "two slices belly" (bacon) in pieces. The meat and half of the moisture you take out. Do not brown the swallows too quickly around. Add bacon back there for 5 minutes. Add three chopped onions, salt, some oil and some water. Simmer on a low heat with lid.
When the onions start to color pour a dash of Armagnac, and let simmer further 5 minutes.

Birds were caught with nets, decoys to fall into cages and traps, glue sticks.
Previously we caught many birds, especially sparrows, blackbirds, starlings, with a reverse ash sieve. Some grain underneath. On one side a stick underneath. Then a long rope on it, and wait quietly in coverage. Even pigeons were taken in.

A bird in the hand is worth a glove.

The difference between a tit and a sparrow is that the two legs are equaly long. Especially the right.
"Do you think, the new maid likes budgies? "Oh, yeah. She says that she eats everything. "