Looking for Eagles: Reflections of a Classical Naturalist - Hardcover

Great Neck Ponit, on North Carolina's Lower Neuse River, teems with wildlife; it was the locus of Lembke's acclaimed River Time. Accompanied by her dog, Sally-doberman, she returns here on a daily survey of bird species and other forms of life. Watching a pair of ospreys build an oversized nest, Lembke recalls that Pliny identified the osprey as one of six kinds of eagles--to him, it was Ossifraga, bone breaker. An interesting foray into the links between scientific nomenclature, myths and history follows, revealing the natural world as seen by the ancients. By modern standards, they were imprecise; Lembke wonders which swan seduced Leda, which vulture feasted on Prometheus. She traces the woodpecker family name, Picidae, to Picus, a son of Saturn. Lembke discourses on snakes, mallards, spiders and biting insects. Ticks, she notes in this wholly satisfying blend of cultural and natural history, do not figure in myths, folk tales, or literature.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A "classical naturalist" is one who writes about nature from a background in Greco-Roman myth and literature, in Lembke's case especially from the viewpoint of the early Greek poets who saw no artificial separation of human beings from the rest of the natural world. Her observations of the living creatures of the North Carolina coastal region where she lives range from a wry discussion of the total uselessness of ticks (so banal that they don't even have a mythology) to a moving affirmation of life in the aftermath of the tragic drowning of a young neighbor. She is always quietly persuasive, never horatory, and does not let her classical training overwhelm her readers, for she realizes that few of them can be expected to share it. Those who like literate, sometimes philosophical, nature writing will find much to enjoy here.
- Paul B. Cors, Univ. of Wyoming Lib., Laramie
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.