A quiet life

“Let us now, gentle reader, retire from the busy scenes of man and journey
on towards the wilds in quest of the feathered tribe,” wrote the 18th-century
naturalist Charles Waterton. His vivid descriptions introduce the essays on
birds in By the Light of the Glow-Worm Lamp, an anthology of natural history
writing. You can also follow Vladimir Nabokov on a hunt for butterflies, or
ponder Darwin’s wide-eyed diaries from the Beagle’s visit to the Falkland
Islands. A book that’s a big lungful of fresh air for the enervated urbanite.
Published by Plenum, $19.95, ISBN 0306459922.