From ancient Greece to the close of the second millennium, the keen scientific eye has been translated over and over into graceful and meaningful texts in which not only the world observed but the act of observation itself is set down for the common reader. By the Light of the Glow-Worm Lamp represents the best of the nature-writing genre in over three dozen works from the past three centuries.

* Introduction * Landscape * The Falkland Islands * La Pampa * The Atlantic Forest * The Falls of Niagara * Fauna and Flora of Nevada * Shooting the Rapids in a Batteau * Heavenly Place * Three Natural Disasters * Hoyle's Mouth * Prophetic Autumn * A Ramble in May * An October Diary * The Encantadas * Nightwatch * Crusoe's Island * Journal 1 * Flowery Tuscany * The Marginal World * Birds * Into the Amazon * Birds of Siberia * The Wild Geese of Wyndygoul * The Crows * Why Birds Sing * Bird Lists * Bird Watching * The Temples of the Hills * King Penguins * Beasts * The Cat * Real Life of the Beaver * The Bonte-Quagga * The Narwhal * Monkeys * Insects and Fish * Three Strokes of a Dagger * The Secret of the Formicary * Butterflies * 12,000,Cod * Common Fish of an Indian Garden * Stars of the Earth * Sources * Author Biographies * Index