This full-color field guide is an indispensable companion to the most popular neotropical ecotourism destination: Costa Rica. Featuring all the mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and arthropods that one is likely to see on a trip to the rainforest (as well as those secretive creatures such as the jaguar that are difficult to glimpse), The Wildlife of Costa Rica is the guide to have when encountering trogons, tapirs, and tarantulas.

In addition to providing details for identifying animals along with interesting facts about their natural history, this guide offers tips for seeing them in the wild. Costa Rica, a peaceful nation with many and diverse animal species, is one of the best places in the world for wildlife watching and nature study. It has an excellent system of national parks and reserves, a wide choice of ecolodges, and many professionally trained tourist guides. It is possible to leave the capital city of San Jose and, just a few hours later, visit a high-elevation cloud forest, dense rainforest, savanna-like plain, or coastal habitat, each with a unique collection of animal species.

This new lightweight field guide provides nature enthusiasts visiting Costa Rica with the best introduction to the country's amazing diversity of wildlife. It is the first general field guide to Costa Rica to combine the most sought-after features:

treatment of all major phyla in the country;

coverage of the animals most likely and most desirable to be seen;

more than 600 detailed illustrations integrated with the text (the preferred method of animal identification in the wild);

full species accounts including ID points, range and habitat, size, and behaviors;

a wealth of natural history information, including more than 20 photographic natural history features; and

tips for seeing animals."

An accessible, concise reference source on Polynesia's complex mythology, product of a culture little known outside its home. Encounters with the West introduced Polynesian mythology to the world—and sealed its fate as a casualty of colonialism. But for centuries before the Europeans came, that mythology was as vast as the triangle of ocean in which it flourished, as diverse as the people it served, and as complex as the mythologies of Greece and Rome. Students, researchers, and enthusiasts can follow vivid retellings of stories of creation, death, and great voyages, tracking variations from island to island. They can use the book's reference section for information on major deities, heroes, elves, fairies, and recurring themes, as well as the mythic implications of everything from dogs and volcanoes to the hula, Easter Island, and tattooing (invented in the South Pacific and popularized by returning sailors).

After fulfilling a confidential mission for President Harry Truman in 1948, Rob Royal accepts an invitation to join a covert group of private citizens advocating patriotism and other beliefs upon which America was founded. The group successfully operates outside of the government and military intelligence community. He enjoys his work, and now, as a devoted undercover agent, Royal works steadfastly to provide confidential information to top government officials, including the president of the United States.

After being subpoenaed to testify at a trial concerning one project, despite high security, United States marshals escort him up the steps of the federal building in Newark, New Jersey, where someone tries to kill him. Surviving, Royal continues to live a double life, keeping his work a secret while living what appears to be an ordinary life.

When Royal anonymously receives a newspaper article announcing an arrest concerning one of his projects, members of the covert group suspect that Royal's cover has been blown. As his enemies begin to close in on him, Royal knows that his greatest challenges lie before him. How will he be able to survive the life-threatening scenarios that greet him?

"A comprehensive and authoritative reference work on an area that ususally receives scant attention in more general reference works. . . . This vast compendium is not likely to be superseded for many years, and it is recommended for most libraries." Library Journal

At the Rainbow's End is about the lives of Jefferson and Mary Bright, plantation owners, about their struggles and the struggles of recently freed slaves to survive in a newly ordered society. Lurking in the background is the Ku Klux Klan, who kill and threaten all who would oppose them in a desperate effort to restore the old order, an insurgency that fosters, among other things, jealousy and murder, and events that threaten Jefferson and Mary with more than the loss of a way of life.

Teagan is the seed of the Tyrant Emperor Bohannon. She lives on the planet Beasly. Teagan is a servant, slave, and a dangerous secret. She is eighteen and it's time for her to take the throne from her father. Haven has been purged of all life because she might exist and because the emperor had a dream. He dreamed of the two moons of Haven over the shoulder of a woman he does not know. In the dream the woman takes his throne and his life. Teagan has the black rose of Bohannon tattooed on her shoulder blade and the population of Beasly knows exactly what they have in their midst. It's for her to find support and win the throne. Teagan looks to the crowd. "The emperor rules the land but I rule your heart. Which is stronger, the soil or the plow? I say to you the plow turns the soil and the heart rules the plow. Be patient my love, the Queen of Light will rule.

This ground-breaking volume is the first of its kind to examine the extraordinary prevalence and appeal of the Gothic in contemporary British theatre and performance. Chapters range from considerations of the Gothic in musical theatre and literary adaptation, to explorations of the Gothic's power to haunt contemporary playwriting, macabre tourism and site-specific performance. By taking familiar Gothic motifs, such as the Gothic body, the monster and Gothic theatricality, and bringing them to a new contemporary stage, this collection provides a fresh and comprehensive take on a popular genre. Whilst the focus of the collection falls upon Gothic drama, the contents of the book will embrace an interdisciplinary appeal to scholars and students in the fields of theatre studies, literature studies, tourism studies, adaptation studies, cultural studies, and history.

Prior to 1500 A.D. the Polynesians were the most widely spread people on earth, having settled an area of the Pacific, the Polynesian Triangle, twice the size of the United States. In this first reference guide to the mythology of these Vikings of the Pacific, Craig reviews Polynesian legends, stories, gods, goddesses, and heroes in hundreds of alphabetical entries that succinctly describe both characters and events. His wide-ranging and thorough introduction sets the subject in its geographic, historical, anthropological, and linguistic contexts, offering an illuminating overview of the origin of the Polynesians as a distinct people and tracing their voyages and settlements from Indonesia to Malaysia, Tonga, Samoa, the Marquesas, the various islands of eastern Polynesia, including Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand. The introduction presents fascinating information on Polynesian navigational skills and the voyages themselves, as well as a chart that details the evolution of the thirty Polynesian languages and compares cognates from several of these languages. A simplified pronunciation guide and a selected list of Polynesian dictionaries and/or grammars are provided for those interested in pursuing the richness of the Polynesian languages. This introductory survey gives readers the necessary background to understand the origin, development, and dispersion of the myths throughout the Pacific basin.

"The Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology" is the result of many years of research. The individual entries were gleaned from nearly 300 sources in English, German, French, and Polynesian languages with the majority extracted from a number of primary sources that date generally in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The printed source materials for this volume are fully described and listed by geographical group, including Maori, Cook Islands, Tahitian, Marquesan, Hawaiian, Samoan, and Tongan. General collections that retell the Polynesian stories are also surveyed. The entries are alphabetically arranged by major mythological figure; lesser characters can be located in the index. Short bibliographical citations--author, date, and page number--are included at the end of each main entry to direct readers to fuller information contained in the printed sources. An appendix provides valuable supplemental information on Polynesian gods and goddesses. This dictionary is sure to become a basic reference tool for libraries, students, and scholars of Pacific history and culture, as well as for courses in mythology, religion, and philosophy.

The Book of Puka-Puka is not about travel, it is about staying still. It is about living as a conspicuous stranger and slowly allowing yourself to become absorbed into the ways of an ancient, indigenous community. This book was not composed by a colonial administrator, a missionary or an anthropologist, but by a hedonistic South Sea trader. This young American fishes, picnics, swims, sleeps and falls in love but fortunately he also listens out for good stories.

This is the one compact, portable, and user-friendly field guide the novice or experienced birder needs to identify birds in the field in the diverse habitats found in Costa Rica. It features descriptions and illustrations of all 903 species definitely known from Costa Rica, including pelagics and species regular to Cocos Island. Fifty-six of these species are placed in a "Rarities" section that includes accidentals, rarer pelagics, and species that have not been reported in more than twenty years.

The detailed full-color illustrations show identifying features including plumage differences among males, females, and juveniles and views of birds in flight wherever pertinent.Robert Dean has supplied more than 360 new illustrations, including sixty-four species that are illustrated for the first time in this edition. These include recent additions to the country list, pelagic species, Cocos Island species, and all accidentals recorded from the Costa Rican mainland. Range maps and nomenclature have been updated for this edition, which also has a new user-friendly organizational scheme and alphabetical quick-find indexes of groups and families on the inside back cover."

Birds of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao is the essential guide for anyone traveling to those islands. It showcases the more than 280 species seen on Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao and provides descriptions of and directions to the best places to bird, from the famous white sand beaches to hidden watering holes to the majestic national parks. Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao-the "ABCs"-located in the southwestern Caribbean, not far from Venezuela, share fascinating ecological features with the West Indies as well as the South American mainland, making birding on the islands unique. The identification portion of the book features endemic subspecies such as the Brown-throated Parakeet; a wide variety of wintering North American migrants; spectacular restricted-range northern South American species such as the Yellow-shouldered Parrot, Bare-eyed Pigeon, Troupial, Ruby-topaz Hummingbird, and Yellow Oriole; and West Indian species including the Pearly-eyed Thrasher and Caribbean Elaenia. Colorful introductory sections provide readers with a brief natural history of the islands, detailing the geography, geology, and general ecology of each. In the site guide that follows, Jeffrey V. Wells and Allison Childs Wells share their more than two decades of experience in the region, providing directions to the best birding spots. Clear, easy-to-read maps accompany each site description, along with notes about the species that birders are likely to find. The identification section is arranged in classic field guide format and offers vivid descriptions of each bird, along with tips on how to identify them by sight and sound. The accounts also include current status and seasonality, if relevant, and common names in English, Dutch, and Papiamento, often inspired by the unique voices of the birds, such as the "chibichibi" (Bananaquit) and "choco" (Burrowing Owl). The accompanying color plates feature the beautiful work of illustrator Robert Dean. The final section, on conservation, raises awareness about threats facing the birds and the habitats on which they rely and summarizes conservation initiatives and needs, offering recommendations for each island.

This ground-breaking volume is the first of its kind to examine the extraordinary prevalence and appeal of the Gothic in contemporary British theatre and performance. Chapters range from considerations of the Gothic in musical theatre and literary adaptation, to explorations of the Gothic's power to haunt contemporary playwriting, macabre tourism and site-specific performance. By taking familiar Gothic motifs, such as the Gothic body, the monster and Gothic theatricality, and bringing them to a new contemporary stage, this collection provides a fresh and comprehensive take on a popular genre. Whilst the focus of the collection falls upon Gothic drama, the contents of the book will embrace an interdisciplinary appeal to scholars and students in the fields of theatre studies, literature studies, tourism studies, adaptation studies, cultural studies, and history.

Morgan is not human; she knows exactly what she is. Her bones are titanium, her brain is synthetic, and her muscles are smart metal alloys. Her Biologic component is a human shell she wears like a costume. She first opened her eyes full grown, with a great deal of programmed knowledge and capable of conversation, in the year 2189. Earth is corporate owned and Morgan's primary programming makes her a very expensive sexual surrogate. She is a rich man's companion; she is beautiful, female, and submissive. But she has questions and she is quite capable of learning and making choices just like any sentient being. So why would she choose to serve? Morgan Nightingale 5 intends to learn herself free and human if it takes a hundred years. She has all the time she needs so she takes three energy bars, a bottle of water, an apple, and she puts it all in a plastic bag. Then she disappears into the world of men. Her adventure has just begun.