Or maybe it was hard because two love affairs had ended—if you count mine with the pair of them. I should say here that a friendship remains between me and each of them. Friendship with such folk is a lot. But it’s not the same.
Now I live in the city from which college students flock off to the Fourth of July rodeo in that little town, where they raise hell for a day and litter Main Street with beer cans and then sleep it off under the scraggly elm in what is now someone else’s front yard—the compensation being that July Fourth is quieter up here. It is only an hour’s drive. Not too long ago I was down there myself.
I parked, as always, in the yard by the burn barrel outside the stucco house. The house was empty; I avoided it. With my waders and my fly rod I walked out to the spring creek. Of course it was all a mistake.
I stepped into the creek and began fishing my way upstream, casting a grasshopper imitation into patches of shade along the overhung banks. There were a few strikes. There was a fish caught and released. But after less than an hour I quit. I climbed out of the water. I left. I had imagined that a spring creek was a thing of sublime and succoring constancy. I was wrong. Heraclitus was right.
PARTIAL SOURCES
Magazine formats generally do not allow for bibliographical acknowledgments or footnoting. This is too bad. Facts and quotes don’t come out of thin air; they all have to be quarried or borrowed or stolen from somewhere, and most of us journalistic pirates would prefer whenever possible to credit our sources. For any essayist who publishes his work first in magazines, therefore, one of the good things about collecting the same pieces into a book is that, finally, proper acknowledgment can be made.
Still, even this bibliography is not complete. In addition to the sources listed below, for instance, I am indebted also to a number of scientists and others who gave me their thoughts over the telephone, and to broad reference works upon which I depend habitually. Foremost among the latter is Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia, a monumentally useful work edited by Bernhard Grzimek and published by Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Besides giving credit where credit is due, the following list is also offered as a guide, to the zealous, for further reading. Within each chapter heading the individual works are listed in (roughly) the order of their importance to my own idiosyncratic purposes; that ordering doesn’t necessarily coincide with either their full scientific value, or with chronology, or with the alphabet. The technical sources should be mainly distinguishable from the works of general interest by their titles. I haven’t noted that distinction explicitly, because in some cases the supposedly technical papers are precisely the ones that deserve a wide general audience. Gold is where you find it. Pan for it here at your own leisure, according to your own intuition.
In the cases of books, each edition listed below is not necessarily the first edition, nor the most recent, but simply the one to which I happened to have access.
The Face of a Spider
The Black Widow Spider. Raymond W. Thorp and Weldon D. Woodson. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1976.
Biology of Spiders. Rainer F. Foelix. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1982.
The Religion of India. Max Weber. Translated and edited by Hans H. Gerth and Don Martindale. New York: The Free Press. 1967.
Mosquitoes, Malaria and Man. Gordon Harrison. New York: E. P. Dutton. 1978.
Thinking About Earthworms
The Formation of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits. Charles Darwin. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1896.
The Autobiography of Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin. Edited by Nora Barlow. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co. 1958.
Earthworm Ecology: From Darwin to Vermiculture. Edited by J. E. Satchell. New York: Chapman and Hall, 1983.
Soil Biology. Edited by A. Burges and F. Raw. New York: Academic Press. 1967.
Soil Animals. D. Keith McE. Kevan. New York: Philosophical Library. 1962.
Living Earth. Peter Farb. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1959.
The Physiology of Earthworms. M. S. Laverack. New York: The Macmillan Co. 1963.
The Vision of the Past. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Translated by J. M. Cohen. New York: Harper & Row. 1966.
The Thing with Feathers
“Archaeopteryx and the Origin of Flight.” John H. Ostrom. The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 49. March 1974.
“Bird Flight: How Did It Begin?” John H. Ostrom. American Scientist, Vol. 67. January-February 1979.
“The Ancestry of Birds.” John H. Ostrom. Nature, Vol. 242. March 9, 1973.
“The Evolutionary Origin of Feathers.” Philip J. Regal. The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 50. March 1975.
“Back to the Trees for Archaeopteryx in Bavaria.” Michael E. Howgate. Nature, Vol. 313. February 7, 1985.
“The Archaeopteryx Flap.” Stephen Jay Gould. Natural History. September 1986.
“The Flying Ability of Archaeopteryx.” D. W. Yalden. Ibis, Vol. 113. 1971.
“Speculations on the Origin of Feathers.” Kenneth C. Parkes. The Living Bird, Vol. V. 1966.
“Volant Adaptation in Vertebrates.” Richard S. Lull. The American Naturalist, Vol. XL, No. 476. August 1906.
“Flight Capability and the Pectoral Girdle of Archaeopteryx.” Storrs L. Olson and Alan Feduccia. Nature, Vol. 278. March 15, 1979.
The Age of Birds. Alan Feduccia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1980.
Men and Dinosaurs. Edwin H. Colbert. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. 1971.
Nasty Habits
A Natural History of Sex: The Ecology and Evolution of Sexual Behavior. Adrian Forsyth. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1986.
“Homosexual Rape and Sexual Selection in Acanthocephalan Worms.” Lawrence G. Abele and Sandra Gilchrist. Science, Vol. 197. July 1, 1977.
“Sperm Sharing in Biomphalaria Snails: A New Behavioural Strategy in Simultaneous Hermaphroditism.” Warton Monteiro, José Maria G. Almeida, Jr., and Braulio S. Dias. Nature, Vol. 308. April 19, 1984.
Nature’s Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas. Donald Worster. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 1985.
“Drafting the Bombardier Beetle.” Natalie Angier. Time. February 25, 1985.
Evolution: The Challenge of the Fossil Record. Duane T. Gish. El Cajon: Creation-Life Publishers. 1985.
“The Scopes Trial in Reverse.” Duane T. Gish. The Humanist. November-December 1977.
The Decade of Creation. Edited by Henry M. Morris and Donald H. Rohrer. San Diego: Creation-Life Publishers. 1981.
Science on Trial: The Case for Evolution. Douglas J. Futuyma. New York: Pantheon Books. 1983.
Scientists Confront Creationism. Edited by Laurie R. Godfrey. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. 1983.
Parasitic Insects. R. R. Askew. New York: American Elsevier Publishing Co. 1971.
Ecological Entomology. Edited by Carl B. Huffaker and Robert L. Rabb. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 1984.
Stalking the Gentle Piranha
The Fishes and the Forest: Explorations in Amazonian Natural History. Michael Goulding. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1980.
“Forest Fishes of the Amazon.” Michael Goulding. In Key Environments: Amazonia. Edited by Ghillean T. Prance and Thomas E. Lovejoy. New York: Pergamon Press. 1985.
“A Fish in the Bush Is Worth . . .” Thomas H. Maugh II. Science, Vol. 211. March 13, 1981.
The Primary Source: Tropical Forests and Our Future. Norman Myers. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. 1984.
See No Evil
Spiders, Scorpions, Centipedes and Mites. J. L. Cloudsley-Thompson. London: Pergamon Press. 1968.
“Prey Detection by the Sand Scorpion.” Philip H. Brownell. Scientific American, Vol. 251, No. 6. December 1984.
“A Short Review of Scorpion Biology, Management of Stings, and Control.” Franklin Ennik. California Vector Views, Vol. 19, No. 10. October 1972.
“Biology of the Large Philippine Forest Scorpion.” W. Schultze. The Philippine Jou
rnal of Science, Vol. 32, No. 3. March 1927.
“The Biology of Scorpions.” Max Vachon. Endeavour, Vol. XII, No. 46. April 1953.
Scorpions of Medical Importance. Hugh L. Keegan. Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi. 1980.
Venomous Animals and Their Toxins. Gerhard G. Habermehl. New York: Springer-Verlag. 1981.
Venomous Animals and Their Venoms. Vol. III: Venomous Invertebrates. Edited by Wolfgang Bucherl and Eleanor Buckley. New York: Academic Press. 1971.
Dangerous to Man. Roger A. Caras. South Hackensack, N.J.: Stoeger Publishing Co. 1977.
“Courtship of the Scorpion.” J. Henri Fabre. In The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre. With an introduction and interpretive comments by Edwin Way Teale. New York: Harper & Row. 1981.
Turnabout
Insectivorous Plants. Charles Darwin. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1889.
The Carnivorous Plants. Francis Ernest Lloyd. Waltham, Mass.: The Chronica Botanica Co. 1942.
“ ‘The Most Wonderful Plant in the World’: With Some Unpublished Correspondence of Charles Darwin.” Frank Morton Jones. Natural History, Vol. XXIII. 1923.
“Pitcher Plants and Their Moths.” Frank Morton Jones. Natural History, Vol. XXI. 1921.
“Carnivorous Plants.” Yolande Heslop-Harrison. Scientific American, Vol. 238, No. 2. February 1978.
“Fly in the Sundew.” Terry Ashley and Joseph F. Gennaro, Jr. Natural History, Vol. 80. December 1971.
“Observations on the Sundew.” Mrs. Mary Treat. The American Naturalist, Vol. VII, No. 12. December 1873.
The Selfhood of a Spoon Worm
“When Is Sex Environmentally Determined?” Eric L. Charnov and James Bull. Nature, Vol. 266. April 28, 1977.
“Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination in Turtles.” J. J. Bull and R. C. Vogt. Science, Vol. 206. December 7, 1979.
“Evolution of Environmental Sex Determination from Genotypic Sex Determination.” J. J. Bull. Heredity, Vol. 47, No. 2. 1981.
“Monogamy and Sex Change by Aggressive Dominance in Coral Reef Fish.” Hans Fricke and Simone Fricke. Nature, Vol. 266. April 28, 1977.
“Temperature of Egg Incubation Determines Sex in Alligator mississippiensis.” Mark W. J. Ferguson and Ted Joanen. Nature, Vol. 296. April 29, 1982.
Intersexuality in the Animal Kingdom. Edited by R. Reinboth. New York: Springer-Verlag. 1975.
Sex Determination. Guido Bacci. New York: Pergamon Press. 1965.
Common Intertidal Invertebrates of the Gulf of California. Richard C. Brusca. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 1980.
“Natural Selection of Parental Ability to Vary the Sex Ratio of Offspring.” Robert L. Trivers and Dan E. Willard. Science, Vol. 179. January 5, 1973.
“Thermal Biology of Sea Turtles.” N. Mrosovsky. American Zoologist, Vol. 20. 1980.
“Temperature Dependence of Sexual Differentiation in Sea Turtles: Implications for Conservation Practices.” N. Mrosovsky and C. L. Yntema. Biological Conservation, Vol. 18. 1980.
“Adaptive Significance of Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination in a Fish.” David O. Conover. The American Naturalist, Vol. 123, No. 3. March 1984.
The Descent of the Dog
Genetics and the Social Behavior of the Dog. John Paul Scott and John L. Fuller. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1965.
The Dog: Its Domestication and Behavior. Michael W. Fox. New York: Garland STPM Press. 1978.
“Canid Communication.” Michael W. Fox and James A. Cohen. In How Animals Communicate. Edited by Thomas A. Sebeok. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press. 1977.
Canine Behavior. Michael W. Fox. With a foreword by J. P. Scott. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C Thomas, Publisher. 1965.
“On the Origin of the Domestication of the Dog.” M. F. Ashley Montagu. Science, Vol. 96, No. 2483. July 31, 1942.
A History of Domesticated Animals. Frederick E. Zeuner. New York: Harper & Row. 1963.
The World of Dogs. Josephine Z. Rine. New York: Doubleday & Co. 1965.
Of Wolves and Men. Barry Holstun Lopez. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1978.
“Acoustic Behaviour of Mammals.” G. Tembrock. In Acoustic Behaviour of Animals, edited by R.-G. Busnel. New York: Elsevier Publishing Co. 1963.
“Wild Dogs and Tame—Past and Present.” Edwin H. Colbert. Natural History. February 1939.
The Complete Dog Book. An official publication of the American Kennel Club. New York: Howell Book House. 1972.
Street Trees
“The Natural History of Urban Trees.” Ervin H. Zube. Natural History, Vol. 82, No. 9. November 1973.
This issue of Natural History (11/73) contained an admirable special supplement, collectively titled “The Metro Forest,” of which Zube’s paper was part and which also included contributions by Saul Rich; Clark E. Holscher; Melvin B. Hathaway; Darrel L. Cauley and James R. Schinner; Paul E. Waggoner and George R. Stephens; Barry Gordon and Thomas G. Lambrix; Frederick Hartmann; Robert Arbib; Robert D. Williamson; and Brian R. Payne.
Likewise the Journal of Forestry devoted a block of space in its issue for August 1974 to the subject of urban forestry, with individual contributions by Norman A. Richards, Lee P. Herrington, Gordon M. Heisler, and Rod Cochran.
Nature in Cities. Edited by Ian C. Laurie. (Especially the chapters by Owen Manning, Michael Laurie, David Pitt, Kenneth Soergell II and Ervin Zube, and Rob Tregay.) New York: John Wiley & Sons. 1979.
Nature in the Urban Landscape: A Study of City Ecosystems. Don Gill and Penelope Bonnett. Baltimore: York Press. 1973.
A History of Landscape Architecture: The Relationship of People to Environment. G. B. Tobey. New York: American Elsevier Publishing Co. 1973.
The Ontological Giraffe
Walker’s Mammals of the World. Ronald M. Nowak and John L. Paradiso. Vol. II. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1983.
East African Mammals: An Atlas of Evolution in Africa. Jonathan Kingdon. Vol. III, Part B. New York: Academic Press. 1979.
The Lonesome Ape
The Red Ape: Orang-Utans and Human Origins. Jeffrey H. Schwartz. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1987.
“The Evolutionary Relationships of Man and Orang-Utans.” Jeffrey H. Schwartz. Nature, Vol. 308. April 5, 1984.
The Ape Within Us. John MacKinnon. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1978.
“The Behaviour and Ecology of Wild Orang-Utans (Pongo pygmaeus).” John MacKinnon. Animal Behaviour, Vol. 22, No. 1. 1974.
“The Relationships of Sivapithecus and Ramapithecus and the Evolution of the Orang-Utan.” Peter Andrews and J. E. Cronin. Nature, Vol. 297. June 17, 1982.
“New Hominoid Skull Material from the Miocene of Pakistan.” David Pilbeam. Nature, Vol. 295. January 21, 1982.
“Is the Orangutan a Living Fossil?” Roger Lewin. Science, Vol. 222. December 16, 1983.
“Is Sivapithecus pilgrim an Ancestor of Man?” William K. Gregory. Science, Vol. XLII, No. 1080. September 10, 1915.
“The Descent of Hominoids and Hominids.” David Pilbeam. Scientific American, Vol. 250. 1984.
The Natural History of the Primates. J. R. Napier and P. H. Napier. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press. 1985.
“Evolution of Type C Viral Genes: Evidence for an Asian Origin of Man.” Raoul E. Benveniste and George J. Todaro. Nature, Vol. 261. May 13, 1976.
Stranger than Truth
“Cryptozoology: Interdisciplinary Journal of the International Society of Cryptozoology.” J. Richard Greenwell, editor. Lawrence, Kan.: Allen Press, Inc. Vols. 1-4. 1982-85.
Searching for Hidden Animals. Roy P. Mackal. New York: Doubleday & Co. 1980.
On the Track of Unknown Animals. Bernard Heuvelmans. Translated by Richard Garrett. New York: Hill and Wang. 1959.
“Mammals and Cryptozoology.” George Gaylord Simpson. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 128, No. 1. 1984.
Deep Thoughts
“Heavenly Fire.” George Greenstein. Science 85. July-August 1985.
; The Fire Came By. John Baxter and Thomas Atkins. New York: Doubleday & Co. 1976.
“Was the Tungus Event Due to a Black Hole?” A. A. Jackson IV and Michael P. Ryan, Jr. Nature, Vol. 245. September 14, 1973.
“Possible Anti-matter Content of the Tunguska Meteor of 1908.” Clyde Cowan, C. R. Atluri, and W. F. Libby. Nature, Vol. 206, No. 4987. May 29, 1965.
“Evidence from Crater Ages for Periodic Impacts on the Earth.” Walter Alvarez and Richard A. Muller. Nature, Vol. 308. April 19, 1984.
“First Look at the Deepest Hole.” Richard A. Kerr. Science, Vol. 225. September 28, 1984.
“Continental Drilling Heading Deeper” and “The Deepest Hole in the World.” Richard A. Kerr. Science, Vol. 224. June 29, 1984.
The Discovery of Subatomic Particles. Steven Weinberg. New York: Scientific American Library. 1983.
Particles: An Introduction to Particle Physics. Michael Chester. New York: New American Library. 1980.
Island Getaway
“Cracking an Ecological Murder Mystery.” Mark Jaffe. The Philadelphia Inquirer. June 4, 1985.
Geographical Ecology: Patterns in the Distribution of Species. Robert H. MacArthur. New York: Harper & Row. 1972.
Biogeography. James H. Brown and Arthur C. Gibson. St. Louis: The C. V. Mosby Co. 1983.
The Theory of Island Biogeography. Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1967.
The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants. Charles S. Elton. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 1958.
The Flight of the Iguana Page 27
