Word: leen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...WORLD OF BATS. Photographs by Nina Leen, text by Alvin Novick. 171 pages. Holt, Rinehart & Winston...
Photographer Nina Leen and Physiologist Alvin Novick have freed the oat from the ignominy of Dore infernos and Transylvanian castles. Myths and tears concerning these shy nocturnal mammals are gently and gracefully blown away with the turning of each page in this unique contribution to the literature of natural history...
...will sip this ration either cold from a dish or warm from a small, painless bite it makes in a convenient extremity of its sleeping provider. Contrary to Draculan film fantasies, the vampire does not fly but tiptoes to its midnight snack in a semierect position. Judging from Miss Leen's photos of the procedure, the creature bears far more resemblance to Lon Chancy hamming up his wolf-man act than to Bela Lugosi spiraling in for an elegant neck shot. Aside from the remote possibility of contracting rabies (bats, like most mammals, can transmit the disease), the only...
Gargoyles. There are bats that feed exclusively on fruit and bats that lap nectar from flowers. The bulldog bat of Central and South America catches fish in its claws, an act Miss Leen has caught in a series of strobe-light photographs. Most bats, however, feed on insects. And "most" adds up to quite a few billions. In addition, the order Chiroptera (Greek for hand-wing) contains the second largest number of species among mammals. First are the rodents, to whom bats bear only a remote taxonomical resemblance...
Exterminators. The guano bats of Mexico and the U.S. Southwest prefer caves, where their bodies carpet the walls and ceilings in quivering fur and leatherous membrane. Their droppings provide one of the world's richest fertilizers. The air in guano caves is stifling. Miss Leen recalls having once been overcome by the ammoniated atmosphere, but not before taking some unusual baby pictures...