I am reading the most fascinating book about Charles Darwin, Lynda Lynn Haupt's Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin's Lost Notebooks. This is just great stuff if you have an interest in natural history. Haupt does not dwell at all on Darwin's evolutionary work, she is more interested in how his experiences on the Beagle transformed him from amature bug collector to seasoned naturalist. She focuses on his work with birds because birds are her own area of expertise and also because he did so much research on them, particularly in South America. What's really fascinating in all of this is that Darwin did write about birds extensively in his diaries and amassed quite the collection of specimans but little was really known about them until relatively recently. His Ornithological Notes filled a thick journal that was really only read by a small group of academics. In 1963, 80 years after he died, his granddaughter transcribed them and had them published by The Bulletin of the British Museum - again not such a popular place for nonspecialists. These notes formed the basis of the bird volume later published as part of the Zoology of the Beagle - but Haupt wanted to go back to the notes Darwin made himself, to see "his deep sensitivity regarding the behavioral and ecological study of animals in their natural, wild places." She was thrilled to discover the Notes a few years ago and now has a photocopy of her own. The book she wrote follows Darwin's trip to professionalism, his discoveries that transformed how he saw the natural world. She intersperses it with her own thoughts and impressions making it a most readable and illuminating book.

Oddly enough, after just starting Pilgrim, I received my requested review copy of Chrysalis: Maria Sibyalla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis. In 1699 Merian traveled from Europe to the New World for the sole purpose of studying insect metamorphosis. She was a German artist who became a naturalist and had studied insects for most of her life. (Why did she become a naturalist? I can't wait to read and find out!) She returned in 1701 and produced a book that "secured her reputation, only to have it dismissed in the 19th century by scientists who disdained the work of 'amateurs'."

I've never heard of Merian but you have to be impressed by her sheer guts - traveling halfway around the world in 1699 (at the age of 50) to pursue her interest, even though it might not be accepted by others. Such a shame to have her be lost to history for so long - and so delightful to see a biographer returning her to at least the popular spotlight.

All of this of course makes me think a bit of Steve Irwin. He was strictly self-taught (or taught by his parents) and so dwelled in the amatuer area, but clearly had an impact that transcended most convervationists and wildlife biologists in history. (Consider his tracking projects on crocs.) It's interesting to see how you can get there on your own by sheer determination and study. You can learn about the natural world simply by actively seeking it out. (And really PETA - can't you find something more important to do then attack the man while his family is still so distraught?)