Science Book Reviews

The Red Canary

...Hans Duncker was to birds what Gregor Mendel was to peas.

The Red Canary is a flight through the history and genetics of canary breeding, portrayed through the biography of Hans Duncker, gifted teacher, prolific researcher, populariser of ornithology, and erstwhile Nazi.

An encounter with an amateur canary breeder in 1921 directs Duncker, a zoologist with a keen mind and a Mendelian slant, onto the emerging field of heredity. Twenty papers, a number of public lectureships, and a museum curatorship later, Duncker embarks on an even more ambitious project - breeding a crimson canary, the elusive trophy of canary fanciers worldwide, through an interspecies mating regime. But nurture foils nature; whilst Duncker manages to create a hybrid species that has the potential to turn red, he fails to recognise the impact environment has on the colour of his birds' feathers. The world would have to wait.

This is a wonderful book that explores one of the earliest and long-forgotten lines of research into heredity through the unlikely story of obsessive, and at times unethical, domestic bird-breeding. Or, if you prefer, it's the biography of an innovative hero of bird-breeding through the unlikely story of genetics.Delivering a crash course in bird-keeping, colonialism, rural economics, eugenics, and avian anatomy to name a few, Birkhead animates the historical backdrop, during which Duncker's work took place, with a theatrical flair. The Red Canary reads like a novel with language as rich and vivid as a canary's plumage; the prose glides seamlessly, and even the mid-sentence asides commenting on his protagonists' eras invigorates the tale rather than interrupts. The book's subtitle promises 'The Story of the First Genetically Engineered Animal'. Do not expect an in-depth analysis of the hi-tech procedures used to clone a pre-Dolly mammal within the artificial confines of a laboratory. What is delivered instead is a discussion of the tried and tested method of animal husbandry, and some of its Darwinian implications. The focus of this book is mainly on the historical and cultural context leading to Duncker's mating regime, without the distraction of confusing or detailed technical procedures. Some of the more scientifically inclined readers may find the biological detail somewhat feathery and wanting in depth, but with an open-mind all will be delighted by this original take on a seminal topic.