bird-lime-msg - 9/3/17
Comments on making and using bird lime in period to catch birds.
NOTE: See also the files: falconry-msg, p-falconry-bib, Featherd-Gold-art, fowls-a-birds-msg, The-Bestiary-art, feathers-msg, netting-msg.
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Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: "celia" <c_a_blay at hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: soc.history.medieval
Subject: Re: Small Things
Date: 16 Jul 2006 23:15:00 -0700
Mark S. Harris wrote:
> > While I was in the woods I gathered some holly to
> > experiment with the making of fly glue/ bird lime
> > as it seems so unlikely that anything as sticky as
> > described could be made from holly, particularly
> > after washing the sap out.
>
> > Are you interested in the progress of the experiment
> > or is this something that has been done ?
>
> Yes, I am. Is this something you have directions or a recipe for? What
> part of the holly are you using? Apparently not the sap and that is what
> would first occur to me, although I don't have any idea why holly might
> be better/different from any other plant.
The directions are from Goodman of Paris.
I must check the translation as I don't like
the bit about wrapping 'in elder or other large leaves'
as elder leaves are small. Elder flowers were used to repel
insects but this seems a fly glue so an attactant would
be more useful, there could be a magical reason but
a bad translation seems more likely.
All the directions are counter intuitive but this glue
and variants are mentioned time and again.
The part used is the cambrium layer, it is seperated
from the bark by boiling and washings follow.
As a first step, i considered what age of holly to harvest.
Holly in sap in the summer months is specified so despite
all the washing a sappy bit seems called for, this seems logical
as the cambrium is the only 'live' part of the tree.
I decided on a mixture of all but the very oldest and youngest bark.
Next as a control, i seperated out some of the cambrian
without boiling so i can see if the boiling is essential or just
an easy way of seperating the bark.
In winter, when used for bird lime, mistletoe berries are added.
Is this because mistletoe is sticky or to attract the birds
or again could there be a ritual significance ?
I work with holly most days as it is the most basic
wood for carriage whip maknig and it isn't sticky.
When peeling the bark it was less sticky than a post it note.
i wondered if fermentation was part of the secret but
the boiling and the insistance on a cool place to keep
it before it is ready seem to suggest otherwise
I can't see it working but it was mentioned so often
that its got to be worth finding out.
Do you know when rabbit skin glue was first used ?
Early I suspect if it was an original ingredient of Gesso.
Celia
> I do have info on bird lime being used in the Middle Ages, but don't know
> much about it otherwise.
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 19:37:29 +0000 (GMT)
From: emilio szabo <emilio_szabo at yahoo.it>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] (No) Limes in Shakespeare
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
<<< Here's an interesting site on food references in Shakespeare's works:
http://www.soupsong.com/ibard.html .
On the question of citrus in the Bard's plays, it shows two references to
oranges in Much Ado About Nothing and a reference to lemons in Love's Labor
Lost, but nothing about limes.
Bear >>>
Also, Alexander Schmidt, in his two-volume Shakespeare-Lexicon does not
mention the fruit in the entry "lime": "Lime, subst. 1) a viscous substance laid on twigs to catch birds, bird-lime, ... 2) the matter of which mortar is made ..." (volume I, page 655).
E.
<the end>