M.’s book provides a comprehensive introduction and overview of the role of birds within ancient society. The book is distinct from previous scholarship on birds in the ancient world with its approach to the material. Where D.W. Thompson's A Glossary of Greek Birds (1895), J. Pollard's Birds in Greek Life and Myth (1977) and W.G. Arnott's Birds in the Ancient World from A to Z (2007) tend to arrange the material by species, M. organises the material into six thematic parts. These parts follow a logical progression from birds as physical actors in the natural world to the abstract use and interpretation of birds in ancient societies. This structure allows M.’s work to act as a companion to its more encyclopaedic predecessors, as his thematic structure provides a more holistic approach to the role of birds.

Additionally, through M.’s original translation and presentation of large extracts of ancient texts, it also serves as a valuable sourcebook for the role of birds in the ancient world. It is certainly not as exhaustive as other sourcebooks on animals, such as S. Lewis and L. Llewellyn-Jones's The Culture of Animals in Antiquity: a Sourcebook with Commentaries (2015), but still proves useful due to its thematic approach and targeted focus.

Part 1, ‘Birds in the Natural World’, is divided into four chapters: the seasons; weather; time; and soundscapes. The first two of these chapters deal with well-known uses of birds as season-markers and weather predictors, with the second chapter moving on to their impact on time (mostly related to the cockerel's crow). The last chapter is the most extensive, concentrating on birds as ancient soundscapes. A highlight of the chapter is M.’s concentration on the distinction made between ancient and modern musical aesthetics in relation to birdsong. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the relationship between birdsong and music.

Part 2, ’Birds as a Resource’, is divided into three chapters: hunting and fowling; cooking and eating; and farming. M. does a thorough job in exploring each of these aspects. The use of visual evidence in this chapter enhances it, particularly the inclusion of a modern example of a thrush caught in bird-lime (p. 80, fig. 3.5), which would be unfamiliar to most readers. While the textual tradition provides excellent information for all three of the chapters in this section, I did find that these discussions suffered slightly from a lack of archaeological evidence. Although M.’s approach is centred on the presentation of birds within the texts, I feel that comparing these accounts with the zooarchaeological record would have enhanced the discussion, particularly in the case of what birds were eaten, and provided the reader with a broader knowledge of the use of birds in the ancient world.

Part 3, ‘Living with Birds’, is dedicated to other types of human–bird interaction that are more symbiotic than the previous section. It deals with the use of birds as pets and aviaries/zoos in the ancient world; birds in sports and entertainment, mainly cockfighting and display in the arena; and the relationships formed between birds and people. This last chapter is perhaps the most interesting approach of the section, as M. decides to tackle how ancient authors reflected on their own relationships with birds. M. also deals with the question of falconry and its apparent absence in the classical world. His suggestion that there was ‘no cultural space for it’ (p. 155) seems an intriguing and plausible answer, but not quite enough evidence or time is spent fully exploring the question.

Part 4, ‘Invention and Discovery’, looks at the appearance of birds in the more ‘scientific’ texts. M. begins by dealing with the reported ‘wonders’ of birds in works of ancient geographers (and Herodotus), before moving on to the role of birds in ancient medicine. The final chapter of the section looks at what M. refers to as the ‘first small steps in the long history of scientific discovery’ (p. 220), i.e. the method of observation and enquiry seen in ancient philosophy and mainly Aristotle's classifications and observations on birds.

Part 5 deals with birds on a slightly more abstract level. This begins with a chapter on augury and divination, followed by a chapter on ‘Magic and Metamorphosis’. This second chapter is an interesting combination of both bird transformation myths and the role that birds played in magical rituals, dances and astrology. The last chapter in this section, ‘Signs and Symbols’, explores the symbolic interpretation of birds. This is a huge topic and M. does an admirable job exploring the vast range of ancient symbolic expressions in this chapter.

Finally, Part 6, ‘Birds as Intermediaries’, looks at the position birds occupy between us and both the natural and supernatural. M. begins this section by looking at various mythological birds, but also by looking at the interesting problem of the absence of the butterfly in classical texts. He finishes with a brief examination of the connection of birds to the divine, through both sacrifice and the varied birds presented as psychopomps.

The book suffers slightly from the usual problems of an overview of this type: the minor conflations of Greek and Roman culture and the homogenisation of attitudes across time and space. However, M. is clearly aware of these issues and indicates this to his reader at the beginning of Chapter 6 when discussing the consumption of birds, where he states: ‘we must remember that practices will have varied considerably across times and places, and not only according to social class’ (p. 92). This point could have been emphasised more frequently.

I have already talked about the absence of zooarchaeological evidence, which I believe would have improved certain aspects, and this is also the case for the integration of visual evidence. While M. includes a variety of images, often they are not directly related to the point he is making and some, such as the inclusion of a Portrait of Frederick II with a falcon (p. 152, fig. 3.7), while interesting, do not add anything to the discussion of birds in their ancient context. This is not to say that all these images are superfluous: in fact, as mentioned, the inclusion of an image of the use of bird-lime enhances and illustrates the discussion. I felt that more of these latter images could have been included, along with a more in-depth discussion of the representation of birds in the art of the ancient world, as often images are presented without commentary.

These are minor issues, however, and certainly do not impact on the usefulness of the book. M. outlines his aim for the book in the preface, where he states his hope that it ‘may in a way serve both as a contribution to the cultural history of birds and as an introduction for non-classicists to this formative period of Western history and some of its greatest literature’ (p. vi). The book certainly achieves these aims. M.’s style will no doubt engage non-Classicists, particularly ornithologists and bird-watchers, through his intelligent use of modern comparisons and presentations of extracts of ancient texts. However, I also believe his book could work as a set-text for undergraduate students, particularly for modules that discuss the interaction between ancient societies and the natural world. It not only serves as a sourcebook for birds in the ancient world, but M.’s discussion of the source material introduces the reader to some of the larger issues in the study of the ancient world, such as the definition of ancient terms and ancient conceptions of time. Additionally, through M.’s inclusion of both a timeline and brief biographies of each included ancient author, it allows both students and non-Classicists to contextualise their knowledge without resorting to an outside text.