3 ms·

Woodcocks travel a fairly immense distance (see https://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/3c74c7b19cb733d0f68b3c4f9caef0117e4f388f.jpg https://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarc

Woodcocks travel a fairly immense distance (see https://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/3c74c7b19cb733d0f68b3c4f9caef0117e4f388f.jpg https://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/3c74c7b19cb733d0f68b3c4f...). I would suspect, had one guessed in 1685 that the birds arriving that Halloween in London had been relaxing in Spring around the Caspian Sea, you would have been laughed at. Persia in the 1600s might as well have been the moon. I suppose one can forgive them for their lack of belief in the power of our fellow animals - that is more or less the major mistake of their time period: hubris. > Now, if this be true (as I have no reason to doubt it), it either shows the creature to come from above, or at least thus much, if it come from any remote part of the earth, it first mounts above the attraction of the earthly globe before it begins its journey toward us. Which, if it be gained, it fairly helps our supposal, as is before noted; for if there be such an attraction (which is called gravity) and it have bounds in a certain height, then it may as well serve their going to the moon as to some other parts of the earth. I do love this though. Perhaps birds travel to the moon! One cannot fault him for lack of imagination.

abecedarius 4y ago
<pedantic engineer voice>The distance to the moon was well-enough known at the time, though. That's quite a migration! And I think they should at least be entertaining a strong doubt about air along the way: from how attenuated the sun/moon look near the horizon vs. high in the sky, most of whatever's attenuating that light stays very near the Earth. I think astronomers had been accounting for refraction from the atmosphere since at least Tycho Brahe. Added: just found this on the early history of atmospheric refraction. https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~lehn/_Papers_for_Download/history_of_refr.pdf https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~lehn/_Papers_for_Download/hist...
- erulabs 4y ago
  Indeed but the bit about “maybe gravity stops applying at some point” is key. Just floating to the moon seems more doable that that this small huntable bird has an active domain larger than any human empire ever. Like obviously they were way wrong - but I think it’s important to frame historical ideas with an honest “what would I have to believe in order to believe this”.
  - abecedarius 4y ago
    Agreed! I wanted to come across in a "yes, and" spirit. I just think "what would I have to ignore?" is interesting, too. Such as a distance that'd take weeks of travel at the speed of a jet plane -- much faster than a hurricane -- nonstop. Some such celestial current is also quite a thing to imagine.

abecedarius 4y ago

<pedantic engineer voice>The distance to the moon was well-enough known at the time, though. That's quite a migration! And I think they should at least be entertaining a strong doubt about air along the way: from how attenuated the sun/moon look near the horizon vs. high in the sky, most of whatever's attenuating that light stays very near the Earth. I think astronomers had been accounting for refraction from the atmosphere since at least Tycho Brahe. Added: just found this on the early history of atmospheric refraction. https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~lehn/_Papers_for_Download/history_of_refr.pdf https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~lehn/_Papers_for_Download/hist...

erulabs 4y ago
Indeed but the bit about “maybe gravity stops applying at some point” is key. Just floating to the moon seems more doable that that this small huntable bird has an active domain larger than any human empire ever. Like obviously they were way wrong - but I think it’s important to frame historical ideas with an honest “what would I have to believe in order to believe this”.
- abecedarius 4y ago
  Agreed! I wanted to come across in a "yes, and" spirit. I just think "what would I have to ignore?" is interesting, too. Such as a distance that'd take weeks of travel at the speed of a jet plane -- much faster than a hurricane -- nonstop. Some such celestial current is also quite a thing to imagine.