Birdlime

It is then pounded into a thick paste, until no wood fibres remain, and washed in running water until no small specks appear.

After fermenting for four or five days, during which it is frequently skimmed, the substance is mixed over a fire with a third part of nut oil.

[4] Birdlime from Damascus was supposed to be made of sebestens, their kernels being frequently found in it; this version was not able to endure frost or wet.

[2] That of the Italians was made of mistletoe berries, heated, mixed with oil, as before; to make it water resistant, they added turpentine.

[2] Nathaniel Atcheson, secretary to the Society of Ship-Owners of Great Britain, in his 1811 work On the Origin and Progress of the North-West Company of Canada with a history of the fur trade... mentions birdlime (p 14) as an important import commodity for use in the Canadian west in the late 18th century.

In July 2020, France was poised to outlaw "glue-trapping" (French: chasse à la glu) of birds (thrushes and blackbirds within quotas), using sticks covered in glue, after the European commission threatened legal action and fines.

[10] The 4th-century BC Greek writer Aeneas Tacticus recommends (34.1–2) birdlime be used as a substance which will prevent fires from burning wood or other combustible materials, when smeared upon their surfaces.