Wings in the Meadow Author:Jo Brewer This is one of those rare books which afford us an insight into a world of living creatures which few people have ever explored. Wings in the Meadow recounts in poetic detail the life history of an extraordinary insect -- his birth, growth, metamorphosis, travels, adventures and eventual death. Mrs. Brewer writes with great skill, combining a lo... more »ve of the natural world with a wealth of scientific observation to create a story full of beauty and excitement.
In the flowering meadow where the monarch, Danaus, first appears we are introduced not only to butterflies, but to the whole interlocking life system of the field from microbes and tiny scavengers to man. We then follow Danaus through all the colorful changes which lead him from the confines of a minute eggshell to the final winged state -- through his first mating flight, the vicissitudes of his two-month-long life, and finally through the dramatic two-thousand-mile migration of his children and grandchildren, who live through the winter to begin the marvelous cycle once again the following spring.
This book will delight nature lovers young and old, who enjoyed Henry Williamson's Salar The Salmon, Rachel Carlson's Under The Sea Wind, or Robert Murphy's The Peregrine Falcon.« less