Feathering their nests

Walter Rothschild, the eccentric eldest son of the first Baron Rothschild, once remarked: “Birds have the power of sucking the honesty out of people, like the vampire sucks blood.” The man who drove a carriage harnessed to four zebras to Buckingham Palace, just to prove that zebras could be tamed, was speaking from experience. His zoological collection, the largest ever amassed by a private individual, at one time included 300,000 bird skins and 200,000 eggs.

Rothschild, who was given a museum by his father as a 21st birthday present, is a character in one of the strangest robbery stories you will ever read. It took place in 2009 and encompasses most of the seven deadly sins. Dozens of those involved have never been identified. It is the greatest wildlife crime of the past century, perhaps of all time. And you’ve probably never heard anything about it.

This story is full of villains and obsessives. The prime one is Edwin Rist, a talented young flautist from a small town in America. But just as culpable are a shadowy bunch of people obsessed with tying classic salmon flies with original feathers from birds that are heavily protected,