Upside Down World Early European Impressions of Australia's Curious Animals

Late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Eurocentric perceptions of natural history led to the flora and fauna of the new colony of New South Wales being viewed as deficient and inferior. The swans of the colony were black and eagles white, birds built shell-strewn avenues of sticks to cavort in and parrots walked on the ground. Olsen documents how our scientific knowledge evolved, using collectors' and naturalists' journals to enhance her stories.