Eccentricities of the Animal Creation. — A Closer Reading

Between Fact and Fable

The book's structure repeatedly places mythical creatures alongside documented species. The mermaid chapter assembles ancient sirens, Leyden's ballad, and a 1822 sighting, then concludes with a 'test for a mermaid' and a note on Japanese mermaids. Similarly, the unicorn inquiry marshals Ctesias on wild asses, the Royal Arms, and factitious horns in museums. Timbs does not dismiss these traditions outright; he presents evidence from Klaproth, the Rev. John Campbell, and Baikie, leaving the question open. This method reflects a Victorian appetite for wonder that coexists with emerging scientific standards.

The rhinoceros chapter, by contrast, relies on Bruce and Sparmann, a description of the 1868 African specimen, and Burchell's rhinoceros, with precise details on the horn's composition. The contrast is instructive: when Timbs has reliable naturalists, he foregrounds their observations; when he does not, he lets the folklore speak for itself.

Anatomical Curiosities and the Toucan's Bill

One of the most detailed passages concerns the toucan's bill. Timbs quotes Professor Owen's microscopic examination, noting that 'the smallest of the supporting pillars of the mandibles are seen to be hollow or tubular.' He describes the bird's feeding mechanism: holding fruit at the bill's tip, applying the tongue, then throwing it upward to the throat. The bill's strength, despite being 'light and almost diaphonous,' is linked to the muscles used in wrenching and mastication.

Timbs also catalogs Gould's six genera of toucans—true Toucans, Araçaris, Banded Aracauris, Toucanets, Hill Toucans, and Groove-bills—with plumage details. He notes that powder-flasks are made from the bills, and that toucans in captivity are 'gentle and confident,' playful as magpies, and teachable like parrots, though they cannot imitate human speech. The passage exemplifies Timbs's blend of anatomical precision, natural history classification, and anecdotal charm.

Penguins and the Gravity of the Wingless

The penguin chapter opens with a striking image: these birds, 'powerless in the wing as an organ of flight,' use their wings as fins underwater and as anterior limbs on land. Timbs notes that their habitat—'desolate southern islands and shores where man rarely intrudes'—is a wise provision of nature. He quotes Le Vaillant's account from Dassen Island, where penguins stood 'perpendicularly on their two feet,' giving them 'an air of gravity, so much the more ridiculous as its wings, which have no feathers, hang carelessly down on each side.'

The scene is comic and dignified: the penguins surrounded a mausoleum, 'seemed as if determined to prevent us from approaching it.' Timbs does not analyze this behavior; he lets the image stand. The passage reveals his skill at selecting vivid, slightly absurd observations that make the reader see the animal anew. The penguin's gravity, its refusal to yield, becomes a small drama of resistance.

Timbs's book rewards a nonlinear reading: dip into the chapter on the mole's 'fairy rings' or the bat's wing structure as you please. The author's voice is that of a collector, not a theorist, so the pleasure lies in the juxtapositions—the unicorn next to the ant-bear, the mermaid next to the toucan. Pay attention to the footnotes and the credited observers; they reveal the network of travelers, naturalists, and antiquarians that Timbs drew upon. The book is a snapshot of how a Victorian mind organized the animal kingdom: part Linnaean, part medieval bestiary, and wholly curious.

Reading about Timbs’s toucan and its improbable bill, I remembered sitting with my grandfather’s old illustrated volumes, turning pages slowly. The wonder wasn’t in the facts, but in the quiet strangeness of it all. Zoological Illustrations, Second Series, Volume 2 or, Original Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, or Interesting Animals — A Reader’s Guide gave me that same hush, like stumbling upon a creature that politely ignores my existence.