From 1981 to 1996, Quammen recounted personal tales of adventure and wry observations in his popular "Natural Acts" column in "Outside" magazine. "The Boilerplate Rhino" brings together 25 of his best pieces, offering readers the opportunity to behold the quirks of both human and nature through the eyes of a masterful storyteller.

Contents

Introduction

I. ROADKILL ON THE HIGHWAY OF TIME

Rattlesnake Passion

The Narcotic of Empire

Hard Parts


II. DUBIOUS CERTITUDES, DAUNTLESS THEORIES

Certainty and Doubt in Baja

Phobia and Philia

Who Swims with the Tuna

Tropical Passengers

Spatula Theory

The Great Stinking Clue

The Dope on Eggs


III. FLESH OR FOWL OR WHAT?

The Cats That Fly by Themselves

Local Bird Makes Good

One Man's Meat

Either or Neither


IV. NEAR SIGHT

Beast in the Mirror

Palpating the Tumor

Rethinking the Lawn

Half-Blinded Poets and Birds

Time-and-Motion Study


V. TRICKS OF THE LIGHT

The Boilerplate Rhino

Limelight

Gardening on Mars

Impersonating Henry Thoreau

God's Weakness for Beetles

Limits of Vision

Bibliography

Index

David Quammen’s books include Breathless, The Tangled Tree, The Song of the Dodo, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, and Spillover. He has written for The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Outside, among other magazines, and is a three-time winner of the National Magazine Award. Quammen shares a home in Bozeman, Montana, with his wife, Betsy Gaines Quammen, author of American Zion, and with three Russian wolfhounds, a cross-eyed cat, and a rescue python. Visit him at DavidQuammen.com.