Talk:Ortolan Bunting

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Much of this from 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, not the horrifying quote, however. Ortolan88

I thought they were fried, not roasted. The French are truly the Chinese of Europe. Booshank 23:13, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

The book "HEAT" by Bill Buford mentiones Mario Batali's first job serving roasted ortolan Reflux 19:23, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mitterrand's last meal

Is there a source for this ? Somehow I find it hard to believe that a dying man could eat ortolans.

The source is an article by Michael Paterniti in the May 1998 issue of Esquire; there are numerous citations of it online but I don't think the article itself is.

It was also discussed at length in an issue of NPRs this American Life taped in early December 2007. 74.78.162.229 (talk) 08:39, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
Also Weekend Edition, Feb. 2006 [1]. Googling "François Mitterrand last meal" gives a wealth of links. -- 19:29, 11 December 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.104.112.64 (talk)

[edit] Conservation

fr:Ortolan says that it is protected in Europe, but this article says it is of least concern. --Error 19:35, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

There's no conflict there,most birds in Europe are protected to a greater or lesser extent, even quarry species have specified hunting periods. The Birdlife International criteria are quite strict - to even be vulnerable, a species must have a small population, limited range, or be declining at an alarming rate. Ortolan is still a numerous an widespread bird, and is common around the Med. Jimfbleak.talk.07:00, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Urban hunting

I've (re)added a reference to the Urban Hunting article in The Stranger where the quote about eating Ortolan appears to be taken from. It struck me as odd to have this quote lifted from the article without any sort of citation visible. Without proper attribution, who can say where the text came from? Rstadler 06:40, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

I've removed the reference because the author quoted claims he has no expertise in this matter whatsoever.[2] Rklawton 00:40, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

I should look up that Top Gear episode that is mentioned in the latter thestranger article (it might have been the Clarkson "touring europe" program he did instead of top gear). I definetly remember it as well, perhaps we can use that to source. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 16:12, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

The documentary/program was called "Meet the Neighbours" (episode France). I think it will be difficult to get a hold of, but perhaps i run into it somewhere.. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 23:44, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
Found it. http://www.tv-links.co.uk/video/9/7198/11592/70928/98897 Ignore the Star Wars intro thing, it's the ripper having fun, the rest of the episode is just fine. The ortolan item starts 31mins in. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 23:53, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

This article is discussed in the Seattle weekly "The Stranger" here: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=297191 WiccaWeb 06:05, 30 August 2007 (UTC)