ABSTRACT
So far as poor captivity-such as a bird’s in a cramped cage-is concerned, Chaucer’s statement of the bird’s likely preferences could hardly be bettered. But Chaucer was not aware that robins, for example, normally live in the wild a mere tenth of their potential life span and have, any year, only a 50 per cent chance of surviving to the next (Lack 1970:88-106). Thus it is only too true that captive animals often live longer than wild ones; for many animals it must be true that only with man’s protection have they any chance of dying of (as we say) old age.
