The Wildlife Companion

With its nicely designed pages and occasional b&w illustrations, this compendium of animal and nature trivia looks a bit like Ben Schott's bestselling Schott's Original Miscellany. It feels like it too, with its combination of whimsy and fact. (The nightjar, we're told, is ""one of Britains more enigmatic birds"" and was one once believed to suck the milk of goats, making it ""The Margaret Thatcher of the Bird World""; the swift, meanwhile, ""sleeps, drinks, and even mates on the wing."") Under headings such as ""Nature Notes,"" ""Meanwhile, in a Foreign Land"" and ""Quote, Unquote,"" the authors offer nature-themed excerpts from literature, animal-related info from other countries and bits of quotable wisdom (e.g., the Polish proverb that notes: ""A hippo does not have a sting in its tail, but a wise man would still rather be sat on by a bee""). Other fun facts: there's a Fijian snail with the Latin name Ba Humbugi; moles have twice as much blood and hemoglobin as other mammals their size; and the bombardier beetle, which can ""squirt rapid-fire jets of boiling liquid at its enemies,"" may help scientists figure out how to re-ignite an aircraft engine that has cut out mid-flight. Even the page numbers in this book correspond to facts (e.g., at the bottom of page 14 a note points out that a baby hedgehog is blind for the first 14 days of its life; on page 15, we find out that the oldest recorded age of a wild badger is 15). There's some silly filler here and there (cars named for animals; creatures that Spider-Man has fought), but in general, this little book makes for fascinating browsing.