![]() I accordingly rushed out in a transport of Enthusiasm, & was received by a roar of laughter from the whole watch. The hook was much too easily baited for me not to be caught: Sullivan cried out, “Darwin, did you ever see a Grampus: Bear a hand then”. midshipmen to reef top-sails All turned in to their hammocks again, some growling some laughing. at midnight nearly all the watch below was called up in their shirts Carpenters for a leak: quarter masters that a mast was sprung. On April 1 st even Charles Darwin was subjected to a bit of fun by his shipmates as he recorded in his Beagle Diary: April 1st All hands employed in making April fools. ![]() Once on a long drive from Toronto to the AOU meeting in Duluth, Minnesota, he entertained us with ornithological humour for the entire round trip.Īs today is April Fool’s Day, it’s seems appropriate to chronicle some biological humour from the past. He also liked to pun on the names of birders and ornithologists, as in calling Dean Amadon, the curator of ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History, the ‘Dean of Ornithology’. At first, he was almost always right but this soon became his response whenever I could not identify a bird, no matter how big or colourful. Baillie often took me birding when I was a teenager and his typical response when I could not identify a big, distant bird was “You know the crow?”. Most of the ornithologists that I know have a great sense of humour.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |