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How did medieval hermits survive on their self-denying diet? What did they eat, and how did unethical monks get around the rules? The Egyptian hermit Onuphrios was said to have lived entirely on dates, and perhaps the most famous of all hermits, John the Baptist, on locusts and wild honey. Was it really possible to sustain life on so little food? The history of monasticism is defined by the fierce and passionate abandonment of the ordinary comforts of life, the most striking being food and drink. A Hermit’s Cookbook opens with stories and pen portraits of the Desert Fathers of early Christianity and their followers who were ascetic solitaries, hermits and pillar-dwellers. It proceeds to explore how the ideals of the desert fathers were revived in both the Byzantine and western traditions, looking at the cultivation of food in monasteries, eating and cooking, and why hunting animals was rejected by any self-respecting hermit. Full of rich anecdotes, and including recipes for basic monk’s stew and bread soup – and many others – this is a fascinating story of hermits, monks, food and fasting in the Middle Ages.

Fuel deposition rates of migrating birds may indicate the quality of habitat at stopover sites, yet little is known about how diet habits and food availability affect fat and protein metabolism in free-living songbirds at stopover sites. We compared plasma indicators of fat deposition (triglyceride), fat catabolism (B-hydroxybutyrate), and protein catabolism (uric acid) among passerine species that are frugivorous to a variable degree during autumn stopover on Block Island, Rhode Island. We also compared plasma lipid metabolites from 3 of these species that were captured at 2 stopover sites with different fruit abundance. The more frugivorous Hermit Thrushes (Catharus guttatus) had the highest plasma triglyceride, and uric acid was highest in the least frugivorous species sampled on Block Island, but other differences among species were not clearly related to diet. B-hydroxybutyrate was more variable among the species sampled on Block Island. Plasma triglyceride was significantly higher in Hermit Thrushes captured on Block Island, where fruit resources were abundant, than in Hermit Thrushes captured at a mainland site in southern Rhode Island, where less fruit was available. Our results suggest that diet habits may influence fat and protein metabolism in migrating passerines, but careful study design and statistical analyses are necessary to control for or minimize the effects of the many influential factors that affect plasma metabolites so they can be used to assess fuel deposition in free-living birds and to compare the quality of migration stopover sites.

Many songbirds are seasonally frugivorous and eat primarily fruit during migration and insects or seeds during nonmigratory periods. Previous work has suggested that most wild fruits may have inadequate protein for birds. Assessing the nutritional adequacy of fruit requires knowing the protein requirements of birds in relation to the composition of available fruits. We tested predictions of two hypotheses: (1) interspecific differences in protein requirements of birds are related to their foraging strategy; and (2) protein requirements of birds increase with demand, for example during migratory periods of the annual cycle. We measured the protein requirements of the omnivorous Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) and the granivorous White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) during nonmigratory and migratory stages of the annual cycle and compared the results with published estimates for other songbird species. In the nonmigratory state both species ate less, lost body mass, and had more negative nitrogen balance as dietary protein decreased. In the migratory state Hermit Thrushes lost body mass and had lower nitrogen balance but did not reduce food intake as dietary protein decreased, whereas White-throated Sparrows did not change body mass, food intake, or nitrogen balance as dietary protein decreased. Both species had lower protein requirements during migration (9.3 mg N day-1 and 15.8 mg N day1, respectively) than during nonmigratory periods (53.1 mg N day-1 and 46.0 mg N day-1, respectively) when fed a diet containing 15.9 kJ g-1. These findings may partially explain how birds can adequately refuel on protein-limited foods such as fruits during migration.

What is the distance between literature and suffering? Does it depend on the nature of the suffering, on its closeness or on its strength? Is the distance less between poetry and the suffering caused by the reflection of the fire than the distance between poetry and the suffering arising from the fire itself? There are examples to hand that show there is a more or less immediate connection between poetry and remote or closed suffering. Perhaps we can say that simply to suffer with others is a form of poetry, which feels a powerful longing for words. Immediate open suffering