Re: Shearwaters and Hitchcock

[(Gail Gibbs)]

The original inspiration for Hitchcock's film "The Birds" was Daphne du
Maurier's short story of the same name.  Oriel Mallet in her prologue to
"Letters from Menabilly" writes about Daphne "I remember the afternoon we
were walking over a stubble field, while a crowd of seagulls wheeled and
cried above us. 'I've often thought how nanny it would be if all the birds
in the world were to gang up  together and attack us,' she said suddenly.
'They could, you know.'  ('Nanny' was a codeword used to mean 'anything
frightening or threatening'.) As this incident took place near Menabilly
near Fowey in South Cornwall, England, the 'seagulls' are likely to be
Herring Gulls.
                                                Gail Gibbs