Science · Nature

Mecklenburg stork with an African spear and the study of bird migration in the 19th century

Until the nineteenth century, science did not know for certain what happens to many birds in winter: where do they vanish to? As late as the end of the eighteenth century it was suggested that birds fall into hibernation and sleep beneath the snow or on the beds of lakes

Art · Observations · Nature · Humour

Osborne’s painting “Cupboard Love” and the English idiom for self-interested love

Cupboard Love, Walter Osborne, 1886. In English the painting is called Cupboard Love, an idiom denoting self-interested affection. That is to say, the object of love is regarded as a source of benefits, namely as a cupboard stocked with tasty things. According to Osborne's conception, such is

Drawing of Edgar Poe seated at a desk with a quill in hand, a cat perched on his shoulder.

NB! · Books · People · Nature · Humour

Edgar Poe said his stories were written by his cat Catarina

Edgar Allan Poe's beloved cat was called Catarina, and she would sit on his shoulder, watching him write. Poe liked to say that his stories had in fact been written by his faithful cat.

Art · Observations · People · Nature

Impermanent sculptures of branches and vines by American artist Patrick Dougherty

My favourite artist of the day is the 78-year-old American Patrick Dougherty, who makes fantastical sculptures out of twigs and saplings. Dougherty's chief technique is stickwork: armed with stems, secateurs and a saw, he clothes the familiar furniture of the landscape (walls, fences, trees, hillocks) in

NB! · Nature · Humour

A Piglet with a Human Face: His Mother Was So Unpleasantly Surprised That She Refused to Feed Him

NB! · Nature · Humour

The cat, upon learning what her food costs

Two satellite maps of the Netherlands side by side show differences in the outlines of the land and the sea coast.

NB! · Geography · Maps · Nature

The coastline of the Netherlands in 1300 and 2023 in two comparative images

The Netherlands in 1300 and in 2023. This is what a successful battle with Poseidon looks like

Archive · Books · Monarchies · Science · Nature

Butler's bee hierarchy with a queen at the head, an aristocracy and a plebs

The Hierarchy of Bee Society: An Illustration from The Feminine Monarchie, or The History of Bees, the 1609 Scientific Book by the English Naturalist Charles Butler. That bee society is headed by a queen was news at the time; this fact had been discovered only at the end of the

Archive · Books · Science · Palaeontology · Nature

Adam, Eve and Dinosaurs: The Ascent of Life

and The trumpet of scientific judgement, which raised extinct species from the dead so that they might appear before the tribunal of naturalists - witty illustrations from the astronomer Camille Flammarion's book The World Before the Creation of Man, 1886

Books · Nature

Nikolay Gumilev’s poem “The Giraffe” about an exquisite giraffe on Lake Chad

Today, I see, your gaze is especially sad, And your arms especially thin as you clasp your knees. Listen: far, far away, on Lake Chad, An exquisite giraffe wanders. Graceful slenderness and languor are granted to him, And his hide is adorned with a magical pattern, With which only the

Close-up of a tiger's head with orange fur, black stripes and brown eyes on a pale sheet of paper, a colour drawing.

NB! · The East · Art · Nature

Depiction of a tiger by an unknown South Asian artist of the early 19th century

The Sad Tiger. Unknown South Asian artist, 1815 to the 1820s.

NB! · Geography · Moscow · Nature