The Describer's Dictionary: A Treasury of Terms & Literary Quotations (31 page)

But hold it I did, and looked it over well, for it isn’t often I can close my hands on such an exquisite minikin. Its snippet of a buff nose came to a rounded point under high-perched eyes brightly edged in gold. One brown polka-dot marked the space between each two lines of its cross, and narrow bands of brown decorated its frantically springing thighs. The soft skin of its underparts was finely granular, beigey- white with a hint of greenish, and its wrinkled throat was lightly touched with yellow. No webbing at all between its long fingers and only a trace between its toes. Fingers and toes so delicate, so fine, and the climbing discs upon them infinitesimal but distinct. The whole adult peeper so minute it hid itself completely under the end of my thumb.

There is almost no way to explain a takin. Part this, part that, it looks as if it humbly adopted all the attributes that other goats and antelopes refused. Ponderous and unwieldy, its heavy body sits on fat, stubby legs, and is covered with a dingy, drab coat. Its horns look like a cross between those of the gnu and musk ox, and its face seems to have suffered a terrible accident, while the expression of its droopy lips makes one think it has been sucking a mixture of lemon and garlic.

Now—the date being October 21, 1945—I hold in the hollow of my hand the body of a little bird killed last night in its migration by flying against a railing atop the roof. I saw it lying in the sunlight on the tarred roof this morning, when I went up there, a creature hardly larger than a mouse, with flaming gold breast streaked with black, and gold elsewhere or russet blending into brown and black. It has a slender, pointed black bill. Its fragile, polished black feet simply hang from it, the toes grasping nothing. You would be surprised, holding it in your hand, at how soft and thick is its coat of feathers. The plumage is most of the bird, for the body is simply a small hard core at the center which you feel with your fingers pinching through the downy mass.

The possums are dark brown all over, as large as a domestic cat, and have long tails, bushy to their very tips. They are unmistakably Brush-tipped Ringtails. A male sits lower in the tree than the rest of the group and the strong spotlight reveals his features. He has broad, well muscled shoulders covered in a mantle of inch-long silky fur, much silkier than that of any other possum. His large dark brown eyes too are different from those of most possums; they are set more to the front of the face. His broad naked nose and deep jaw gives a chunky look to his profile.

Two kinds of geckoes live in these highlands. On the tree trunks lives the Leaf-tailed Gecko. In day-time he is a mere mottled green smudge as he lies flattened against a giant tree trunk and is virtually invisible. His fringed sides and broad tail do not even cast a tell-tale shadow and his huge lidless eyes are a maze of green and black squiggles which also match his surroundings. No bird or other predator has sight keen enough to detect him. As long as he does not move he is safe. STANLEY AND KAY BREEDEN,

Only a Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo moves in the crown of a tall tree. He shuffles along a horizontal branch on his thickly padded, black feet and feeds on a branch which he has pulled towards him with his powerful arms. He eats first the leaves then rips off strips of bark with his strong teeth. He is sombre coloured; his round face, limbs and underside of the tail are black, his back is grey with patches of orange-fawn on the flanks, arms and underside. While eating he squats low on the branch, a powerful dark figure in the shadowless early light. STANLEY AND KAY BREEDEN,

Although very light birds, they are fairly large, with a wing-span of about seven feet; when sitting they cross their wings swallowlike over their backs. Although their feet are small, unwebbed, and useless for walking or swimming, frigates can perch with great ease on twigs and branches, either with two toes forward and two back, or three forward and one back. The beak is about four inches long, strongly hooked, and has a sharp tip. It is perfectly adapted for snatching fish from just below the surface, picking up floating organic debris, or lifting twigs from the ground or from another bird, while in full flight.

The shrew is a ferocious and deadly little animal. If it were larger—it is less than the size of a mouse—it would perhaps be one of the most feared animals in the world. It has a narrow, tapering snout; close, dark, sooty-velvet fur; and needle teeth. A poison gland in its mouth sends venom into its victim when it bites, and its prey dies quickly.

The pronghorns are distinctive in other ways. Both sexes may have horns, but the horns of the female never exceed the length of the ears. The horns are composed of fused hairs which cover a bony core. The horn sheath is shed annually. The rump patch, which resembles a huge powder puff when the hairs are erected, acts as an alarm device. When the white hairs are erected they reflect a large amount of light.

About half the bulk and weight of thar, chamois are natives of European and Asian alps. For their handsome appearance, golden brown in summer with dark facial stripe between the sharply pointed ears and muzzle, black legs and short upright horns curved backwards at the tops to form semicircular hooks, they were considered ‘royal’ beasts, being also a challenge to hunt, good to eat, and providing buckskin.

I have even mentioned White-footed mice. Yes, it is a
kind
of mouse, with—giving a splendid boost to the good sense of name-givers—white feet. It (this mouse) also has a white belly and a bi-colored tail, the under half of which is white all down its length. He eats whatever mice eat (which is not at all cheese, but native seeds, roots, and some small insects), and has white whiskers and a line of demarcation between the expansive white belly and his back which is a soft, fawn-colored brown (generally). He has large ears, two cutting incisors above and two below, and large coal-black eyes, and his name is
Peromyscus.
He is clean, noninfectious, industrious, and thoroughly American. And, as I say, he has white feet.