Created for the "Paper Museum" of the 17th-century scholar and art collector Cassiano dal Pozzo, naturalist Pietro Olina's original 1622 Uccelliera harkens back to ornithology's earliest days—a period when folklore informed natural history studies as much as science did. With meditations on the "epileptic" robin redbreast and a recipe for chickpea pasta meant to satisfy a nightingale and keep it in song, this handsomely produced book features a foreword by the author of H Is for Hawk and watercolors of 40 species, including the quail, the hoopoe, the starling, and the kingfisher.