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On the Rocks (Paperback)
Bryan Nelson; Illustrated by John Busby
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R681
Discovery Miles 6 810
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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A new, updated version of the celebrated 1968 title, Galapagos:
Islands of Birds, by the renowned late ornithologist Bryan Nelson,
with additional, previously unpublished reminiscences and lively
and irreverent memories from his wife June. This timely reissue
breathes new life into a classic work of natural history that will
appeal to bird-lovers and Galapagos-lovers alike. It is as
memorable for its groundbreaking descriptions of Galapagos wildlife
as for June's naked appearance in the News of the World accompanied
by a quote from the Duke of Edinburgh. In 1964 the late Bryan
Nelson, a zoologist, and his wife June spent a year living on two
uninhabited, waterless Galapagos islands studying the three species
of booby ('we couldn't resist also studying the great frigatebird
and waved albatross, too' says June). Bryan's book, Galapagos:
Islands of Birds was published in 1968 and, although by necessity a
scientific study, his light touch and the extraordinary hardships
and delights of living in total isolation with no means of rescue
should things go wrong, make it an exceptionally good read. Now,
nearly 60 years later, June Nelson has extracted the story of that
extraordinary year and complemented it with her own recollections.
The couple's research and findings remain relevant and interesting,
so plenty of wildlife descriptions are retained, but it is the
mischievous mocking birds and friendly sea lions which will
captivate the reader as much as the famous blue-footed boobies and
waved albatrosses. At the end of their stay on Hood, when their
clothes were literally in tatters and they went barefoot, they had
news of the imminent visit of The Duke of Edinburgh and the Royal
Yacht Britannia. June's description of this visit and their lunch
on board with Prince Philip, make a surreal ending to a year of
deteriorating food: 'Now our flour had around 50 maggots or beetles
per pound... Dried beans would have three or four beetles per
bean... In spaghetti a black shadow meant beetle, a grey one
maggot. It took a long time, breaking out each shadow, to make a
meal.'
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