ZoPteryx

Earlier this year I rediscovered a collection of nature stories by Charles G. D. Roberts that I have distinct memories of reading as a child. The descriptions of the animals are generally (though not entirely) within the realm of plausibility, but I was struck by the focus on violence and bloodshed in the stories. There is one that consists almost entirely of a great horned owl killing one animal after another until it meets its match in a lynx. The story about bitterns appears to be narratively complete… but then there’s an out-of-the-blue goshawk attack that ends with the pair of bitterns brutally stabbing the hawk to death. I c