Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin's Lost Notebooks

"That's the question Lyanda Lynn Haupt explores in a narrative that puts us inside the young Darwin's shoes - and brings us nose to nose with dung beetles, ostriches, and all forms of native wildlife. By focusing mostly on the birds Darwin observed, and by mining his lesser-known writings - diaries, correspondence, ornithological journals, unruly little pocket notebooks - Haupt illuminates the process of discovery that shaped Darwin's vision. Her book not only chronicles Darwin's transformation from uncertain amateur to "finished" naturalist but reminds us how and why, in our own world as well as Darwin's, attention to small things can make a big difference."--BOOK JACKET.