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From Bird Scientist to Spy:
the Name is Bond, James Bond
by Frederic Briand
His name is Bond. Easy to remember.
This week the world celebrates the 50th
anniversary of the birth, on film, of the
best-known agent on Her Majesty’s
Secret Service. Some 23 James Bond
movies later, we still ignore everything
about Agents 006 and 008, but know
much about the man operating under
codename 007. Except, perhaps, his
patronymic origin.
That question frankly had never crossed my mind until I stumbled in the late ‘70s into
a remote forest station based in Jamaica’s Blue Mountains. The sea had turned quite
nasty, and there was no point going on that day with my field work at the Discovery
Bay Marine Lab. So I decided to explore the rugged east side of the island instead.
It took a while, I remember, to reach the forest cabin about mid-range, lost amidst the
dense tropical vegetation. The place was not huge but it was well kept, providing
vistas of the northern coastline, way down below, plus bird songs from every corner
of the sky-high canopy. With patience, and a pair of good binoculars, one would soon
be observing those birds real close - the hummingbirds, the woodpeckers, the
mockingbirds, the parrots - one after another.
The Jamaican Woodpecker, Melanerpes radiolatus, one of 28 birds endemic to the island
Biologists, ‘even’ marine biologists like me, like to put names on the animals they
come across in the wild, and so I sought assistance from the forest ranger. He
handed me a sizable field guide – ‘the very best’ he said. Actually there was no other
choice: this was the only book on Caribbean birds available at that time, and for a
long time (1). That copy had seen better days for sure; it was worn out, some pages
were missing. But it contained hundreds of drawings and annotations depicting the
diverse bird fauna of the Caribbean islands. A pioneering study. The name: ‘Birds of
the West Indies’. The first year of publication: 1936 - there were many editions to
follow. The author : a certain James Bond, a leading American ornithologist, working
at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.
Cover jacket of first Edition (1936)
James Bond ! So there was a ‘second’ one, a serious ornithologist bearing the same
name as ‘our’ Agent 007. Since the Park ranger knew his birds but nothing,
absolutely nothing about spy movies, I did not pursue my line of questioning very
long and quickly forgot all about it.
It was not until years later that I was able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. I
had read somewhere that Ian Fleming – the British journalist who created and
developed the fictional James Bond character through the course of twelve novels -
was a keen birdwatcher who possessed a home in Jamaica.
Then it all came back to me, James Bond the leading expert on the Caribbean
avifauna; the scenario of the first 007 movie - Dr No - based and shot in Jamaica;
and in particular this ‘cultissime’ scene where a bikini-clad Ursula Andress emerges
from the waves holding a conch. A scene perhaps, just perhaps responsible for more
vocations in marine science than the full set of Cdt Cousteau’s documentaries...
Ursula Andress, as a professional shell collector in ‘Dr No’
A little bit of ‘research’ uncovered a few interesting points:
• Ian Fleming did start writing the Bond series in 1952, from his home base in Port
Maria, north shore of Jamaica, where he worked as foreign manager of a newspaper
group;
• birdwatching was a serious hobby for the English author, who would often take to
the outdoors, a copy of the Bond field guide tucked in his pocket;
• and then this candid acknowledgment (2) - that he had deliberately 'stolen the
name' (sic) of that James Bond and used it, as he was looking for a 'very flat name,
without any romantic overtone';
• he elaborated further, at a late stage of his life (3), that this was ‘the dullest name’
(sic) he could find, and thus perfectly suited for an anonymous, secret agent.
Today the bird fauna of Jamaica appears to be ok, thanks i) to a healthy allergy of
the mountain islanders to mass tourism, mostly confined to coastal spots, ii) to the
protection of large tracks of undisturbed forests, and iii) to the enactment of legal
instruments. Jamaica is a biodiversity hotspot, ranking n° 5 in the world in terms of
endemic species. Let’s hope that Jamaica can resist the silly, growing pressures of
our century for a very long time.
Happy Birthday, Mr Bond! Nobody did it better.
_____________
(1) In#1998#would#appear#A"Guide"to"the"Birds"of"the"West#Indies#by#H.#Raffaele#et#al.;#and#recently#Birds"of"
the"West"Indies#by#N.#Arlott#in#June#2010.#
(2)#see#rare#appearance#on#:#youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=n_IzoKbNktY##
(3)#from#an#interview#published#in#the#21#April#1962#issue#of#The"New"Yorker.