As for this clue, you really have to be clued up on James Bond to know the connection.
This is that when Ian Fleming was writing his first novel, he could not think of a name for the hero - until he found a book, "Birds of the West Indies", published in 1936. That book was written by an ornithologist called James Bond, who was thirty-six when it was published.
We know that a copy of the book was in Ian Fleming`s Jamaican residence, as he was a keen bird watcher, and that he thought the name was short and to the point, as well as the fact that "Bond" suggested a sense of honour and duty. However he did not ask for the use of the name, and for several books the ornithologist was quite unaware that he had an alter ego. But when he did find out he was not displeased, and when he and his wife turned up and visited Ian Fleming at his home in the mid 1960s they seem to have got along well, and after that we know that there are several little in jokes and references to the real James Bond, and ornithology, scattered about in the text, as well as in the films.
To our card, and the reason why it is here, well that is because the first edition of James Bond`s "Birds of the West Indies", published in 1936, has this very bird, the Cuban Tody, on its cover.
This set appears in our original British Trade Index part two, as :
- SERIES 6. TROPICAL BIRDS. Sm. Nd. (48). Subjects based on Set BRM-16, less two, different numbering. CU.6 ... BRM-31.A
A. Back with Montreal address, in red and black, top line in (a) red (b) black
B. Back with New York address, in red and blue
The Canadian and North American issues were not included in the updated British Trade Index, so the only card code is the BRM one. The CU one is actually Brooke Bond`s code for the set.
The UK set that this was supposedly based on was the one from drawings by Tunnicliffe, I am not certain about this, and very few of these birds are in our version, only, so far, those on Canadian cards 19 and 45. But maybe there is a specialist who would like to help us out. I have done a list of the Canadian cards, in the hope it helps -
- Common egret
- Scarlet ibis
- Flamingo
- Nene
- Black bellied tree duck
- Fulvous tree duck
- Bahama duck
- Swallow tailed kite
- Brown noddy
- Fairy tern
- Scarlet macaw
- Hyacinthine macaw
- Carolina parakeet
- Thick billed parrot
- Yellow headed parrot
- Mealy parrot
- Crimson topaz
- Quetzal
- Cuban trogon (UK 26 - different picture)
- Coppery tailed trogon
- Gartered trogon
- Green kingfisher
- Cuban tody
- Turquoise browed motmot
- Great jacamar
- Emerald toucanet
- Chestnut eared aracari
- Kell billed toucan
- Puerto Rican woodpecker
- Ivory billed woodpecker
- Lovely cotinga
- Red cotinga
- Peruvian cock of the rock
- Three wattled bellbird
- Fork tailed flycatcher
- Great kiskadee
- Green jay
- Blue mockingbird
- Tiwi
- Red legged honeycreeper
- Montezuma Oropendola
- Yellow winged cacique
- Spot breasted oriole
- Lichtenstein`s oriole
- Blue hooded euphonia (UK 29 - different picture)
- Rose breasted thrush tanager
- Red crested cardinal
- Yellow grosbeak