Archie Carr

Having spent years studying turtles in their native habitats, Archie Carr brought together a wealth of information in this celebrated volume. Organized in clear and concise fashion, written in an engaging and lively manner, and furnished with black-and-white photographs, drawings, and maps, Handbook of Turtles (first published in 1952) gives a comprehensive summary of 79 species and subspecies of North American turtles. In the foreword to 1995 paperback edition, J. Whitfield Gibbons, renowned ecologist and natural history author, brings the book into historical perspective and supplies information to bring it up to date. In the introduction, Carr considers such topics as turtle physiology, reproduction, growth, adaptation, and behavior. The introduction also includes discussions of methods for collecting specimens, the evolutionary origins of turtles, and the mythology and folklore surrounding the turtle. The second part of the volume is organized according to keys that give identifying characteristics, life histories, and illustrations of each species. Under headings of geographical range, distinguishing features, description, habitat, habits, breeding, feeding, and economic importance, the volume provides detailed accounts of the various species and subspecies. Throughout Carr offers colorful recollections and anecdotes about his fieldwork and research.

Illuminated by the same joyful curiosity and erudition, lyric writing, and plain love of life that made a classic of Archie Carr's The Windward Road, --Peter Matthiessen Archie Carr shows that he can write about people and forests engagingly and accurately without recourse to fake adventures or gringo condescension.--New York Times Archie Carr's story is his love for the rural high tropics of Central America, revealed with grace and humor in the personal account of the years (1945-49) that he spent in Honduras with his family as a teacher at the Agricultural School run by the United Fruit Company. High Jungles and Low has four parts, each written in a distinctive style. The Land is descriptive and includes a candid chapter on Yankee relations with Latin America. People in the Land is anecdotal, with sketches of the hill people of Honduras. The Sweet Sea, a short history of Nicaragua, reveals the biological drama of four centuries of turmoil in that country. Hall of the Mountain Cow is Carr's one-month diary of a 100-mile walk along the Mosquito Shore, the rain forest of the Caribbean coast