Man & Birds

Man & Birds by R. K. Murton


Publisher: Taplinger Pub. Co, 1972ISBN is 9780800850838 / 0800850831
Hardcover6.1 x 8.85 inches, 364 pages

Ronald Keir Murton was born in 1932. The first sixteen years of his working life, after graduating in Zoology at University College London,
were with the Infestation Control Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. He became immediatelyinvolved in the study of birds which are agricultural pests, and with the wood pigeon in particular. Murton's work on pigeons had a
very practical aim, and it was successful in identifying the problems even if it was not possible to find any easy solution. Although Dr Murton's career was almost entirely in research, he was closely associated with the academic world. In 1968-69 he enjoyed a year's
sabbatical leave as a visiting lecturer at the University of Hong Kong. In 1974 he was appointed an Honorary Reader in the department of zoologyat Hull University, and recently he was promoted to Honorary Professor. He was in demand to lecture to university
students and others. After leaving Hong Kong he returned briefly to the Ministry of Agriculture in 1969, and then transferredto Monks Wood Experimental Station, at that time under the Nature Conservancy. When the research branch
of the Conservancy was reorganised as the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology he remained at Monks Wood, and wassoon appointed as Head of the SubDivision of Animal Function. As well as observing birds in the
field. Murton was one of the most outstanding bird photographers. As long ago as 1963 he was elected to Associatshipof the Royal Photographic Society. During his comparatively short period. just twelve months, in Hong Kong, he
made a surprisingly large collection of slides of the nesting habits of many of the rarer and more interesting species,several of which had not been previously photographed. He used his own photographs to illustrate his books