“Then,” admits William Corliss, introducing the 17th volume in his
staggering Catalog of Biological Anomalies, “there is the compiler’s inherent
tendency to favour the curious and bizarre in nature.” But Birds, for all that
Corliss falls at all the usual hurdles (his lack of maths makes him suspicious
of Darwinism), is never less than open-minded in its accumulation of awkward
ornithological facts. Anyway, how does a puffin catch several fish in its beak
without dropping the first one? Published by Sourcebook Project, $29.95,
ISBN 0915554321.
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