| Introduction: A Mouse Is Miracle Enough | ix |
| Author's Note | xv |
| I. FACES UNLIKE OURS | 1 |
| The Face of a Spider | 3 |
| Thinking About Earthworms | 10 |
| The Thing with Feathers | 17 |
| Nasty Habits | 25 |
| Stalking the Gentle Piranha | 32 |
| See No Evil | 40 |
| Turnabout | 47 |
| The Selfhood of a Spoon Worm | 54 |
| II. WILD NOTIONS | 61 |
| The Descent of the Dog | 63 |
| Street Trees | 70 |
| The Ontological Giraffe | 77 |
| The Lonesome Ape | 84 |
| Stranger than Truth | 90 |
| Deep Thoughts | 97 |
| III. FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS | 105 |
| Island Getaway | 107 |
| Talk Is Cheap | 114 |
| Icebreaker | 122 |
| Agony in the Garden | 132 |
| The Poseidon Shales | 140 |
| The Beautiful and Damned | 147 |
| Provide, Provide | 155 |
| The Flight of the Iguana | 161 |
| IV. THE MORAL ECOLOGY OF A DESERT | 177 |
| The Beaded Lizard | 179 |
| Drinking the Desert Juices | 203 |
| The Desert Is a Mnemonic Device | 211 |
| V. CHAMBERS OF MEMORY | 231 |
| The Miracle of the Geese | 233 |
| Swamp Odyssey | 241 |
| The Siphuncle | 261 |
| The Same River Twice | 270 |
| Partial Sources | 279 |