Download or read book The Curse of the Labrador Duck written by Glen Chilton and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-09-08 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an obsessive 82,000-mile quest for dead birds, how much trouble can one scientist get into? Finally, the world's leading authority on the extinct Labrador Duck, Dr. Glen Chilton, shares the story of his frenzied obsession to reveal the histories behind the mysterious bird -- a saga wherein he sets out to examine the remains of every Labrador Duck, conduct genetic analysis on every Labrador Duck egg, and visit every site where the duck was shot...with many a (mis)adventure along the way. More elusive than the Passenger Pigeon, the Dodo, or the Great Auk and breeding in places so obscure that no certain records exist of its nests, the Labrador Duck succumbed to extinction almost before anyone realized it was in decline. When Chilton began his travels, there were thought to be approximately fifty stuffed specimens, scattered among the museums of Europe and North America. However, as his search progressed, it became clear that some specimens had been lost to war and theft, while others lay hidden in far-flung collections, overseen by secretive curators. After traveling the equivalent of 3.3 times around the world with a series of oddball companions, Chilton finally began to close in on every known specimen...but not before he risked heavy-metal poisoning in Russia, swam naked in a glacier-fed stream, corresponded with a millionaire murderer, and narrowly avoided arrest in New York City. A magnificent blend of travel writing, science, detective work, and mishap, The Curse of the Labrador Duck is the zany adventure of one biologist's obsessive quest to uncover the mysteries of one of the world's most enigmatic birds.
Download or read book The Curse of the Labrador Duck written by Glen Chilton and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2009-09-04 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Little is known about the Labrador Duck, which once populated eastern North America but has been extinct for more than 100 years. Stuffed specimens, housed under glass in museums and in private collections worldwide, are rare -- only 55 are known to exist. Even more rare is the kind of scientist who would, given the task of writing a small species account about the Labrador Duck, travel around the globe more than three times in search of every last stuffed bird. And what about the curse? Everyone who has owned a stuffed specimen has come to a bad end, whether going to jail or dying under mysterious circumstances. But Chilton is a rare specimen himself, and a biologist with a self-professed obsessive personality. ("They say that some children suck their thumb while still in the womb; I spent those nine months chewing my fingernails.") His pursuit of the extinct species took him to the ducks' breeding habitat on Canada's east coast, as well as on many adventures in Europe and America as he searched museums and personal collections. Over the course of his epic journey, Chilton encountered a colourful flock of scientists, journalists and amateur ornithologists. He also endured numerous hangovers, swam naked in a glacier-fed stream and narrowly avoided arrest in New York City. The Curse of the Labrador Duck is a quest unlike any other, an impulsive journey around the planet in pursuit of a bird no one in our lifetime has seen alive. Looking for the chance to win $10,000.00? Read on to find out how you could win.
Download or read book Hope Is the Thing With Feathers written by Christopher Cokinos and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-05-14 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A prizewinning poet and nature writer weaves together natural history, biology, sociology, and personal narrative to tell the story of the lives, habitats, and deaths of six extinct bird species.
Download or read book Moby Duck written by Donovan Hohn and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-03-03 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year A revelatory tale of science, adventure, and modern myth. When the writer Donovan Hohn heard of the mysterious loss of thousands of bath toys at sea, he figured he would interview a few oceanographers, talk to a few beachcombers, and read up on Arctic science and geography. But questions can be like ocean currents: wade in too far, and they carry you away. Hohn's accidental odyssey pulls him into the secretive world of shipping conglomerates, the daring work of Arctic researchers, the lunatic risks of maverick sailors, and the shadowy world of Chinese toy factories. Moby-Duck is a journey into the heart of the sea and an adventure through science, myth, the global economy, and some of the worst weather imaginable. With each new discovery, Hohn learns of another loose thread, and with each successive chase, he comes closer to understanding where his castaway quarry comes from and where it goes. In the grand tradition of Tony Horwitz and David Quammen, Moby-Duck is a compulsively readable narrative of whimsy and curiosity.
Download or read book The Attack Of The Killer Rhododendrons written by Glen Chilton and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Glen Chilton, the author of the rollicking Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour finalist The Curse of the Labrador Duck, returns with yet another quest, this time to seek out species ill-advisedly introduced into foreign environments. Chilton visits Ireland to witness how rhododendrons, an ornamental plant that escaped a private garden, now threaten to choke out the last of the great oak forests of the United Kingdom. He escapes blood-thirsty midges and a murderous Hungarian architect while visiting a colony of forgotten Scottish wallabies; finds out how termites, brought in on packing crates after the Second World War, contributed to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans; and dodges crocodiles and big guns in the eucalyptus forests of Ethiopia. And, in true Glen Chilton fashion, he never turns down the opportunity to share a few pints with eccentric locals, often finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Download or read book Gun Dog written by Richard A. Wolters and published by Dutton. This book was released on 1961-05-26 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: GUN DOG is The first book written for the man with limited time and facilities who wants a gun dog fast and who wants to train it himself. The first book written in this field with scientific information on the mental development of a dog. From this study by one of the nation's outstanding animal behavior laboratories, Wolters has changed the procedures in training a gun dog. The first book for the upland bird hunter that teaches the hunting commands with the use of training tools, making training easier for you and your dog. The first book to show the complete training procedures step by step in picture sequences. It will show you not only what to expect of your dog, but what your dog expects of you. You will be able to see how to do it. GUN DOG is A REVOLUTIONARY RAPID TRAINING METHOD.
Download or read book The Lost Bird Project written by Todd McGrain and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sculptor creates memorials to five extinct North American bird species
Download or read book The Other End of the Leash written by Patricia McConnell, Ph.D. and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2009-02-19 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn to communicate with your dog—using their language “Good reading for dog lovers and an immensely useful manual for dog owners.”—The Washington Post An Applied Animal Behaviorist and dog trainer with more than twenty years’ experience, Dr. Patricia McConnell reveals a revolutionary new perspective on our relationship with dogs—sharing insights on how “man’s best friend” might interpret our behavior, as well as essential advice on how to interact with our four-legged friends in ways that bring out the best in them. After all, humans and dogs are two entirely different species, each shaped by its individual evolutionary heritage. Quite simply, humans are primates and dogs are canids (as are wolves, coyotes, and foxes). Since we each speak a different native tongue, a lot gets lost in the translation. This marvelous guide demonstrates how even the slightest changes in our voices and in the ways we stand can help dogs understand what we want. Inside you will discover: • How you can get your dog to come when called by acting less like a primate and more like a dog • Why the advice to “get dominance” over your dog can cause problems • Why “rough and tumble primate play” can lead to trouble—and how to play with your dog in ways that are fun and keep him out of mischief • How dogs and humans share personality types—and why most dogs want to live with benevolent leaders rather than “alpha wanna-bes!” Fascinating, insightful, and compelling, The Other End of the Leash is a book that strives to help you connect with your dog in a completely new way—so as to enrich that most rewarding of relationships.
Download or read book The Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter written by Aaron Reynolds and published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2022-03-08 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times best-selling author Aaron Reynolds delivers an "entertainingly spooky romp" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) about Rex Dexter, who is itching to have a dog . . . but ends up with a pet chicken. One hour and fourteen minutes later, the chicken is dead (by a steamroller), Rex is cursed (by the Grim Reaper), and wild animals are haunting Rex's room (hounding him for answers). Even his best friend Darvish is not going to believe this, and that kid believes everything! Rex's uninvited ghostly guests are a chatty, messy bunch. And they need Rex to solve their mysterious deadly departures from the Middling Falls Zoo before it happens again. But how?
Download or read book How to Hold Animals written by Toshimitsu Matsuhashi and published by Scribner. This book was released on 2020-11-03 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to Hold Animals is the irresistible guide to holding more than forty critters according to advice from wildlife specialists. Learn from the experts—a pet shop owner, a veterinarian, a wildlife photographer, and a reptile handler—how to pick up and hold dozens of species of animals, great and small, furry, scaly, and feathery, including snails, chipmunks, chickens, chinchillas, stag beetles, lizards, hamsters, owls, grasshoppers, mice, and more. Chock full of fascinating facts, interviews with experts, and full-color photos on every page, How to Hold Animals will delight and inform animal lovers of all stripes.
Download or read book How to Do Things with Words written by John Langshaw Austin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1975 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work sets out Austin's conclusions in the field to which he directed his main efforts for at least the last ten years of his life. Starting from an exhaustive examination of his already well-known distinction between performative utterances and statements, Austin here finally abandons that distinction, replacing it with a more general theory of 'illocutionary forces' of utterances which has important bearings on a wide variety of philosophicalproblems.
Download or read book Bay of Spirits written by Farley Mowat and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2009-01-13 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1957, Farley Mowat shipped out aboard one of Newfoundland’s famous coastal steamers, tramping from outport to outport along the southwest coast. The indomitable spirit of the people and the bleak beauty of the landscape would lure him back again and again over the years. In the process of falling in love with a people and a place, Mowat also met the woman who would be the great love of his life. A stunningly beautiful and talented young artist, Claire Wheeler insouciantly climbed aboard Farley’s beloved but jinxed schooner as it lay on the St. Pierre docks, once again in a cradle for repairs, and changed both their lives forever. This is the story of that love affair, of summers spent sailing the Newfoundland coast, and of their decision to start their life together in Burgeo, one of the province’s last remaining outports. It is also an unforgettable portrait of the last of the outport people and a way of life that had survived for centuries but was now passing forever. Affectionate, unsentimental, this is a burnished gem from an undiminished talent. I was inside my vessel painting the cabin when I heard the sounds of a scuffle nearby. I poked my head out the companionway in time to see a lithesome young woman swarming up the ladder which leaned against Happy Adventure’s flank. Whining expectantly, the shipyard dog was endeavouring to follow this attractive stranger. I could see why. As slim and graceful as a ballet dancer (which, I would later learn, was one of her avocations), she appeared to be wearing a gleaming golden helmet (her own smoothly bobbed head of hair) and was as radiantly lovely as any Saxon goddess. I invited her aboard, while pushing the dog down the ladder. “That’s only Blanche,” I reassured my visitor. “He won’t bite. He’s just, uh . . . being friendly.” “That’s nice to know,” she said sweetly. Then she smiled . . . and I was lost. —From Bay of Spirits
Download or read book The Long Labrador Trail written by Dillon Wallace and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2019-11-29 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Long Labrador Trail by Dillon Wallace is an exciting tale of adventure and survival set in the rugged wilderness of Labrador, Canada. The book follows the author's harrowing experiences as he and a companion navigate the challenging terrain and harsh weather conditions on a hunting expedition, providing a thrilling and inspiring account of human perseverance in the face of adversity.
Download or read book The Conduct of Life written by Ralph Waldo Emerson and published by . This book was released on 1861 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Don t Shoot the Dog written by Karen Pryor and published by Interpet. This book was released on 2002 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes a new section on clicker training.
Download or read book Herd on the Street written by Ken Wells and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than sixty years, The Wall Street Journal has prided itself not just on its serious journalism, but also on the whimsical and arcane stories that amuse and delight its readers. In that regard, animal stories have proven to be the most beloved of all. Now, veteran Journal reporter and Page One editor Ken Wells gathers the finest, funniest, and most fascinating of these animal tales in one exceptional book. Here are lighthearted, witty stories of breakthroughs in goldfish surgery, the untiring efforts of British animal lovers who guide lovesick toads across dangerous motorways, and the quest to tame doggy anxieties by prescribing the human pacifier Prozac. Other pieces reflect on mankind's impact on the animal kingdom: a close-up look at the nascent fish-rights movement, the retirement of U.S. Air Force chimpanzees that once soared through space, and ongoing scientific efforts to defeat that most hardy enemy -- the cockroach. Each of these fifty-odd stories -- from the outlandish to the poignant -- exemplifies the superb feature writing that makes The Wall Street Journal one of America's best-written newspapers. This charming and utterly captivating collection will be a joy not only to animal lovers, but to all those who appreciate artful storytelling by writers who are obviously having a wonderful time spinning the tales.
Download or read book New English Canaan of Thomas Morton written by Thomas Morton and published by . This book was released on 1883 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
