It can be fun to riff on classic works of your genre. Probably my favourite Sue Grafton novel is a noir pastische. With any detective fiction, you see the word “bird” or any variant thereof in the title, you think, “Ah, I know what this is going to be.” You don’t choose a bird as a MacGuffin in detective fiction unless you’re choosing to remind us of a very specific bird. Even if the plot doesn’t fully resemble that one, you know what you’re trying for.
Jim is hired by Thomas Caine (the great William Daniels), an art dealer. He hires Jim to act as his purchasing agent—there is a statue up for auction that might be a priceless work of art or might be a duplicate by the artist’s son. Caine wants Jim to do the bidding because he believes, he says, that his very presence bidding would drive up the price. Whichever bird it is, people try to steal it from him, and it gets broken. Caine turns out to be pretty shady.
Jim doesn’t put up with snobbery. It’s one of his better qualities—he’s very good at popping people’s bubbles. Comparing Florence with the City of Industry is a pointed remark. This is kind of a Southern California for Tourists bit, but of course it doesn’t take quite a lot of knowledge of LA to get the concept of City of Industry. It’s worth noting, though, that it doesn’t stop Caine’s attitude. I rather suspect it would take heavy sedation to do that.
Every once in a while, the show decides to skewer something. In this case, Jim goes to an art auction, and the show is quite clear how silly and pretentious it is. Jim tries to bid the way other people do, by subtly lifting a finger to his chin, but the auctioneer’s not having it. Then, Jim crosses his legs and the auctioneer counts it as a bid. This is ridiculous and pretentious and the show knows it. Really, the whole episode is a pointed dig at the art world.
I’m not sure we ever establish what the cormorants were made of. Jim’s got a friend who’s himself an art dealer, and they talk art for a minute, but they never mention it. Honestly, the story of the birds might be something that would raise their value—and would even if they were copies. Not even the valuable copies. Hard to say, really. There’s a lot that we don’t know in this story, because it doesn’t matter to the broad outlines. It’s not as though Jim would know any of this sort of thing anyway.
Take Care of Rockford Files: Fist fight. Car chase. Gun fight. Just a standard episode, really.