Grey falcon

Abstract: Today, more than forty years after Rebecca West gathered her materials for Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, it is easier to see how much her anticipation of an approaching war between Germany and England coloured and shaped her masterwork. Even as she worked on this book, she knew that her motives for visiting Yugoslavia twice in successive years were far from simple. She had been profoundly moved by the assassination of King Ferdinand in 1934, and deep within her there stirred baffling memories, barely understood, of earlier assassinations, of Draga Obrenovitch, of Franz Ferdinand and his wife. ‘Violence was, indeed, all I knew of the Balkans…. I had to admit’, she wrote in her Prologue, that I quite simply and flatly knew nothing at all about the south-eastern corner of Europe; and since there proceeds steadily from that place a stream of events which are a source of danger to me, which indeed for four years threatened my safety and during that time deprived me for ever of many benefits, that is to say I know nothing of my own destiny.1

Abstract: Eggshell thickness of 32 species of Australian raptors, relative to DDT use, was investigated. Nine species showed a significant reduction in shell thickness since DDT was introduced to agriculture in 1946: Whistling Kite Haliasfur sphenurus; Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus; White-bellied Sea-Eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster; Marsh Harrier Circus aerugrnosus; Collared Sparrowhawk Accipiter cirrhocephalus; Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrlnus; Grey Falcon Falco hypoleucos: Australian Hobby Falco longipennis; and Southern Boobook Ninox novaeseelandiae. Average reductions in thickness ranged from 2% (Collared Sparrowhawk and Australian Hobby) to 10% (Peregrine Falcon). These levels are unlikely to be causing widespread population declines. However, several clutches from these species were so thin (maximum thinning ranged from 15% for the Grey Falcon to 45% for the Whistling Kite) that they were likely to break during incubation. Thus, localised breakage of eggs and reproductive failure has probably occurred. In general, bird-eating raptors and those living in areas of intensive agriculture were worst affected. Ostensibly, DDT consumption declined from a peak in 1973 to none in 1989. Reduction in shell-thickness occurred as early as 1947 and was greatest throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The uncontaminated eggs of owls were thinner than those of other raptors, perhaps partly reflecting the owls' lower absorption of dietary calcium (bone).

Abstract: Rebecca West's wide-ranging career as a novelist, journalist, travel and history writer and biographer made her one of the most feted and feared women of her day. With access to her vast archive of letters, diaries and journals, Carl Rollyson has interviewed her friends and family. He discovers how Cicily Fairfield became the audacious Rebecca West, producing pieces such as "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon". In a life of extremes she was viewed as a feminist, an evil mother, an anti-Communist and was made a Dame before her death in 1983.