Nature's Fading Chorus

by Miller, Gordon L.

• ISBN13: 9781559637930
• ISBN10: 1559637935
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-05-01
• Publisher: Island Pr

Summary

Naturalists in every age have been intrigued by frogs, toads, and salamanders. They have seen these amphibians in a variety of guises -- as beings with magical powers or implicit moral lessons, as the products of spontaneous generation, as heralds of the seasons, as evidence of evolution or material for biological experiments, or, most recently, as ecological barometers for the biosphere.Nature's Fading Choruspresents an anthology of writings on amphibians drawn from the entire Western natural history tradition, beginning with Aristotle's Inquiry Concerning Animals written in the fourth century B.C.E., and continuing through recent scientific accounts of the relatively sudden -- and alarming -- global declines and deformities in amphibian species. The offerings not only reveal much about amphibian life, but also provide fascinating insight into the worldviews of the many writers, scientists, and naturalists who have delved into the subject.The book is divided into five sections. The first three offer selections from the most influential contributors to the Western canon of natural history writing, and contain classic texts that illustrate central themes in the changing understanding of amphibians and of the natural world. The fourth section offers engaging essays by leading twentieth-century nature writers that portray a variety of amphibians in diverse terrains. Part five covers the various aspects of, and research on, the problem of amphibian declines and deformities. Featured are more than thirty-five pieces, including works from Pliny the Elder, Gilbert White, William Bartram, Henry David Thoreau, Charles Darwin, T. H. Huxley, Loren Eiseley, Stephen Jay Gould, George Orwell, Annie Dillard, Terry Tempest Williams, and many others.Arranged chronologically, the writings provide an intriguing look at the ways in which humankind's understanding of its place in nature has changed through the course of Western history, and of the niche amphibians have occupied in that evolution.

Table of Contents

Prologue	xi
Robert Michael Pyle
Introduction	1	(10)
Part I: Interpreting the Cosmos
Early Naturalists	11	(28)
Aristole	14	(2)
Pliny the Elder	16	(2)
Anonymous	18	(1)
Albert the Great	19	(3)
Edward Topsell	22	(4)
Thomas Browne	26	(5)
Jan Swammerdam	31	(2)
John Ray	33	(6)
Part II: Reclaiming Paradise
Pioneering Nature Writers	39	(26)
Gilbert White	41	(4)
William Bartram	45	(5)
Henry David Thoreau	50	(5)
John Burroughs	55	(4)
W.H. Hudson	59	(6)
Part III: Telling Naturalistic Tales
Scientific Essayists	65	(46)
Charles Darwin	68	(4)
Thomas Henry Huxley	72	(4)
J. Arthur Thomson	76	(5)
Julian Huxley	81	(7)
Loren Eiseley	88	(7)
Stephen Jay Gould	95	(10)
David Scott	105	(6)
Part IV: Remembering the Earth
Twentieth-Century Nature Writers	111	(50)
Dallas Lore Sharp	113	(11)
Donald Culross Peattie	124	(4)
George Orwell	128	(3)
Joseph Wood Krutch	131	(5)
Edwin Way Teale	136	(6)
Annie Dillard	142	(4)
Robert Michael Pyle	146	(7)
Ann Haymond Zwinger	153	(4)
Terry Tempest Williams	157	(4)
Part V: Reading the Signs of the Times
Declines, Deformities, and Biodiversity	161	(54)
Kathryn Phillips	164	(11)
Laurie J. Vitt, Janalee P. Caldwell, Henry M. Wilbur, David C. Smith	175	(1)
Andrew R. Blaustein	176	(5)
Timothy R. Halliday, W. Ronald Heyer	181	(8)
Stephen Leahy	189	(5)
Virginia Morell	194	(6)
Jocelyn Kaiser	200	(3)
Gordon L. Miller	203	(12)
Epilogue	215	(4)
Ann Haymond Zwinger
Notes	219	(4)
Sources	223	(4)
Acknowledgments	227	(2)
About the Authors	229	(8)
Index	237