Oklahoma

The Nine-banded Armadillo

Nine Banded Armadillo cover

In taking up the new edition of “The Nine-banded Armadillo; A Natural History,” I was still pondering over the news I had recently read explaining that Dasypus novemcinctus, the taxonomic binomial for the title species, has been discovered to be four different species, the northern most of which was to be re-identified as the Mexican Long-nosed Armadillo. How, I wondered, does one review a book about the natural history of a species when that species has since the time of the book’s publication been re-defined?

For The Birds

For the Birds cover

When I first took up bird watching many years ago, one of the first books I bought to learn more about it was a copy of Margaret Morse Nice’s 1939 classic “The Watcher at the Nest” (I’m nothing if not anachronistic). Among the many things I learned from reading it are counted two qualities that have largely defined my life as a naturalist ever since: an appreciation of taking the time to make careful observations of even the most common species in the most everyday surroundings, and a deep love for the classic books of natural history.

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