When it comes to people with whom you’d most enjoy sitting and listening whilst they recount some of the stories they’ve accumulated throughout their respective lives, few can compare in either quantity or quality of tales than a well-seasoned natural history museum curator. Part of the reason for this is simply occupational in nature; such museums being treasure troves of interesting objects each with its own story of how it came to be there. The other part is the type of person drawn to such work. We’re you to make a catalog of the qualities required of an effective curator in such a museum, “enthusiastic curiosity” would likely be very near the top of the list.
Dr. Brian Gill, Curator of Land Vertebrates at Aukland’s War Memorial Museum fulfills all these above noted qualifications brilliantly. Well distinguished in an noteworthy career, responsible for a remarkable collection of interesting and storied specimens, and possessing an enthusiasm about his work that includes not only a curiosity that propels him forward toward discovery but the desire to share with others the results of these discoveries as well, Dr. Gill is exactly the sort of person with whom you could sit for hours on end listening to him recount the stories behind his museum’s specimens.
However New Zealand is a bit of a long trip for most people to make to meet Dr. Gill in person. Thus it is indeed fortunate that he has committed to writing some of his favorite histories of a few of the museum’s particularly noteworthy specimens and collected them in the The Owl that Fell from the Sky. From it’s title story – the curious appearance of a Barn Owl in one of the few places on the planet where they are not normally found – through its concluding one about one of the world’s most lethal aquatic reptiles, the Yellow-bellied Sea Snake, each successive chapter is bursting with not only informative reflections about the biology and habits of the subject species but generously peppered as well with anecdotes about the natural or curatorial history of the specimen or specimens in question.
Not in the least pretentious or pedantic, The Owl that Fell from the Sky is a lively, interesting, and at times wryly humorous book worthy of repeated reading by bird watchers and general natural history enthusiasts alike for the wealth of information it contains as well as for the sheer enjoyment of the stories its author so amiably recounts in it.
Book Title: The Owl that Fell from the Sky
Author: Brian Gill
Publisher: Awa Press
Imprint: Awa Press
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781877551130
Published: January 2013
This review was originally published in the September / October 2013 issue of Bird Watcher’s Digest.
In accordance with Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255, it is disclosed that the copy of the book read in order to produce this review was provided gratis to the reviewer by the publisher.
