Curiosities of Natural HistoryA pioneer in the strange art and ambiguous science of zo phagy-that is, of studying animals by eating them-British natural historian FRANCIS TREVELYAN BUCKLAND (1826-1880) was a wildly popular speaker and writer of the Victorian era. In his classic four-volume Curiosities of Natural History, published between 1857 and 1872, he shared his love of creatures exotic and mysterious with readers who devoured his charming and erudite essays much in the same way he devoured his animal subjects. "If there is one person that I would have expected to have captured a sea serpent in the 19th century for the sole purpose of eating it, it would be Frank Buckland," writes cryptozoologist Loren Coleman in his new introduction to Buckland's series. One of the founding grandfathers of cryptozoology, the discipline that investigates animal mysteries, Buckland was not "a wild-eyed 'true believer' in anything strange," insists Coleman, but brought, instead, "a skeptical, open-minded approach" to his work. Indeed, here, in the "second series" of Curiosities of Natural History, Buckland's erudition is clear in his animated discussions of, among many other things, a dish of fossil fish, a gamekeeper's museum, the gypsy mode of cooking hedgehogs, and practical uses for whale bones. This new edition, a replica of the original 1871 seventh edition, is part of Cosimo's Loren Coleman Presents series. LOREN COLEMAN is author of numerous books of cryptozoology, including Bigfoot!: The True Story of Apes in America and Mothman and Other Curious Encounters. |
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Ammonite ancient animal appearance Appendix bait baleen beautiful birds boat body boiled bones boring bottom brick Bridgewater Treatise Brighton British British Museum Buckland called cast catch caught cement Cheirotherium claws College of Surgeons colour congers coprolites covered crabs creatures cryptozoology curious cuttle-fish eagle eels eggs eyes feet fish fishermen floating Folkestone foot formed fossil Frank Buckland gigantic hair harbour hard head hedgehog holes Hungerford Market hyæna inches John Hunter keeper killed Kimmeridge live lobster London look LOREN COLEMAN Lyme Regis magpies marks mermaid mouth Museum never numerous observed Oxford Pholas pipe pouters preserved probably Professor Quekett rabbit remarkable rocks Roman round sand seen shell ships shore shot side skeleton skin skull species specimen sperm whale stoat stone tail teeth Teredo tide Weymouth whale whalebone wood worm young