A Golden Nosejumper (Hopsorrhinus aureus)

…from the wonderful book on noserunners (Rhinogradentia) by professor Harald Stümpke (proper name: Gerolf Steiner), first published in 1957.

This fake-scientific book is based on a poem by Christian Morgenstern, a famous German author of satirical and eccentric verse. I rediscovered the small book in the attic, when creating space for lesser used books to store away.

I won this copy by “Wichteln”, a sort of present-giving where pairs of givers and recipients are matched by drawing lots, as a student on a party in my thesis advisor’s home, in 1982.

All long ago, but the fun the book is making of scientific writing is well surviving.