The Owl That Fell from the Sky: Stories of a Museum Curator

(Paperback)

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Description

Natural history museums contain many thousands of zoological specimens and each has a tale to tell - often involving extraordinary people, daring explorations, unquenchable scientific curiosity, and strange coincidences. This perfectly presented book, with its engaging pictures, is rich in stories and unveils many secrets. Read about: the fate of a tortoise given as a gift by Captain Cook; the epic international voyage of the biggest known moa egg; the admiration induced by an ape from the jungles of Borneo; the barn owl of mysterious origins; the unfortunate fate of an angry young elephant; the quest to discover how a New Zealand heron turned up in a Florence museum; the strange arrival of an Australian banjo frog and many other mind-boggling mysteries. The author is a fabulous storyteller, and this book will be loved by museum-goers, animal-lovers, and anyone with a curiosity about the natural world.

Reviews

A gently digressive collection where slivers of autobiography weave through clearly articulated scientific explanations." Weekend Herald

"An informative and entertaining collection of stories about some of the weird and wonderful things that have ended up in museum collections around New Zealand." Kia Ora magazine

"Delightfully whimsical. . . . You won't find a whiff of ponderous pedantry or academic plodism in the pages of this small but perfectly formed book." Waikato Times

Author Bio

Brian Gill is curator of birds and other land vertebrates at Auckland Museum, author and co-author of many books, including New Zealand's Unique Birds, The Kiwi and Other Flightless Birds and New Zealand Frogs and Reptiles, and a contributor to New Zealand Geographic and Forest and Bird.