By Stefan Bechtel
He used to be advanced, quirky, pugnacious, and tough. He appeared to create enemies anyplace he went, even between his neighbors. A fireplug of a guy who stood merely 5 ft 8 inches in his stocking toes, he had an oversized ambition to make his mark at the global. And he did. William Temple Hornaday (1854-1937) was once essentially the most well-known conservationist of the 19th century, moment purely to his nice good friend and best friend Theodore Roosevelt. Hornaday's nice ardour was once keeping wild issues and wild locations, and he spent such a lot of his grownup lifestyles in a kingdom of warfare on their behalf, as a taxidermist and museum collector; because the founder and primary director of the nationwide Zoo in Washington, DC; as director of the Bronx Zoo for thirty years; and because the writer of approximately dozen books on conservation and flora and fauna. yet in Mr. Hornaday's conflict, the long-overdue biography of Hornaday by way of journalist Stefan Bechtel, the grinding contradictions of Hornaday's existence additionally develop into transparent. notwithstanding he's credited with saving the yank bison from extinction, he started his occupation as a rifleman and trophy hunter who led "the final buffalo hunt" into the Montana Territory. And what occurred in 1906 on the Bronx Zoo, whilst Hornaday displayed an African guy in a cage, indicates a facet of him that's as baffling because it is repellent. This gripping new publication takes a decent examine a desirable and enigmatic guy.
Read or Download Mr. Hornaday's War: How a Peculiar Victorian Zookeeper Waged a Lonely Crusade for Wildlife That Changed the World PDF
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Additional info for Mr. Hornaday's War: How a Peculiar Victorian Zookeeper Waged a Lonely Crusade for Wildlife That Changed the World
Example text
The adult is illustrated. 5" Season: Summer Habitat: Areas with flowering plants, gardens, urban feeders kingfishers The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is a small, delicate bird able to hover on wings that beat at a blinding speed. The long, needlelike bill is used to probe deep into flowers so the bird can lap up the nectar. Its feet are tiny, and its body is white below and green above. Males have a dark green crown and iridescent red throat, or gorget. Females lack the colored gorget and have a light green crown and white-tipped tail feathers.
Laughing Gulls eat crabs, fish, and worms and will scavenge from humans for food or even steal from other birds. The breeding (bottom) and nonbreeding (top) adult are illustrated. indd 39 9/6/12 9:50 AM Ring-billed Gull, Larus delewarensis gulls, terns Family Laridae (Gulls, Terns) Size: 18" Season: Winter Habitat: Lakes, ponds, parking lots The Ring-billed Gull is common and quite tame. It is a relatively small gull with a rounded white head and a yellow bill with a dark subterminal ring. It has a pale gray back with black primaries tipped with white and has white underparts.
It is found singly or in scattered flocks and picks or probes for crabs, crustaceans, and worms in the mud and sand. Its call is a loud wil-let, often uttered in flight. The nonbreeding adult is illustrated. 5" Season: Winter along the coast; spring and fall migrant inland Habitat: Rocky intertidal areas, beaches, mudflats sandpipers, phalaropes As its name suggests, the Marbled Godwit is marbled, or barred, with dark across its buffy body, although the undersides lack marbling in winter plumage.