Click on a thumbnail to see the full-sized free clip art image. The fish and sea life drawings and paintings on this page came from the beautiful illustrations in the 1902 reference book, A Book of Natural History. You can download a printable ebook containing 83 pages of illustrations from this book, by clicking here.

	Fish 400 X 144
	Lamprey 400 X 200
	Octopus 400 X 184
	Sticklefish 500 X 358
	Sticklefish 400 X 479
	Sticklefish 350 X 406
	Sunfish 450 X 218
	Trout 300 X 255
	Manatee Painting 321 X 500

Click on a thumnail to see the full-sized free clip art image. The bird drawings and paintings on this page came from the beautiful illustrations in the 1902 reference book, A Book of Natural History. You can download a printable ebook containing 83 pages of illustrations from this book, by clicking here.

	Bald eagle 300 X 283
	Blackbird 400 X 382
	Bobolink 300 X 262
	Condor 450 X 178
	Condor Painting 320 X 500
	Hummingbird 500 X 207
	Bird Nest 350 X 368
	Bird Nest 400 X 373
	Oriole 300 X 348
	Quail 350 X 353
	Rooster 350 X 212
	Swallow 400 X 232
	Umbrella Bird Painting 321 X 500
	Woodpecker 350 X 499
	Woodpecker Painting 318 X 500

Click on a thumbnail to see the full-sized free clip art image. The ape drawings and paintings on this page came from the beautiful illustrations in the 1902 reference book, A Book of Natural History. You can download a printable ebook containing 83 pages of illustrations from this book, by clicking here.

	Orangutan 300 X 329
	Gorilla Painting 322 X 500
	Gibbon 200 X 345
	Chimpanzee 300 X 331
	Ape Hands 500 X 249

Click on a thumnail to see the full-sized free clip art image. The frogs and tadpole drawings on this page came from the beautiful illustrations in the 1902 reference book, A Book of Natural History. You can download a printable ebook containing 83 pages of illustrations from this book, by clicking here.

	Frog on a lilypad. 400 X 186
	Frog 500 X 304
	Tadpoles 400 X 263
	Tadpoles 400 X 227
	Toad 350 X 228

Click on a thumbnail to see the full-sized free clip art image. The animal drawings and paintings on this page came from the beautiful illustrations in the 1902 reference book, A Book of Natural History. You can download a printable ebook containing 83 pages of illustrations from this book, by clicking here.

Bat 400 X 286	Snake 350 X 169
Bat Painting 319 X 500	Snake 350 X 299
Chipmunk 500 X 180	Turtle 400 X 200
Manatee Painting 321 X 500	Wolf 500 X 209
Guanaco Painting 301 X 500	There’s more free clip art on this site. Click the links for Apes, Birds, Fish, and Frogs.

Aesop lived several thousand years ago, but his little moral stories still live on.

Click on the pictures below to see just a few of the most famous tales told by a slave:

Teachers:
Did you know that you can download a free e-book of the complete Aesop’s Fables, translated by George Fyler Townsend, from Elibron.com?

The sloth is the only animal I know of that was named after one of the seven deadly sins.

The Sloth is slow. He hangs upside down on tree branches. He has so much algae growing on his fur that he looks green. His claws are so long and curved that walking on the ground is almost impossible. Friends who visited Costa Rica told me that a sloth makes a very good pet (they certainly can’t run away from you like a cat or husky will). But in much of the early literature on the sloth, they were held in remarkable contempt. ‘Cause they’re slow.

You don’t usually think of a scientist making moral judgements about the behavior of animals, but here’s what the great French naturalist Georges Buffon said about sloths in his eighteenth-century book Histoire naturelle:

“… we must speak more of wretchedness than laziness–more of default, deprivation, and defect in their constitution: no incisor or canine teeth, small and covered eyes, a thick and heavy jaw, flattened hair that looks like dried grass…legs too short, badly turned, and badly terminated….Slowness, stupidity, neglect of its own body, and even habitual sadness, result from this bizarre and neglected conformation…These sloths are the lowest term of existence in the order of animals with flesh and blood; one more defect would have made their existence impossible.”

Gee, you’d think Mr. Buffon didn’t like sloths very much, wouldn’t you?

Here are some interesting facts about sloths -

Their body temperature is much lower than most mammals, varying between 82 and 90 degrees.

• They have lots of teeth, but they are related to anteaters, who have no teeth at all.
• They sleep about 18 hours a day (upside down), and spend almost all of their lives hanging in trees, where their slowness and greeness makes them very difficult to see.
• They come down from their trees once every 8 days or so, to deficate and urinate (everything about a sloth is slow).
• While almost all mammals on earth have seven neck vertebrae, (even giraffes), the two toed sloth has six, and the three toed sloth has nine. Because of the extra vertebrae, the three toed sloth can turn it’s head around farther than any other mammal.

The best place to learn about sloths is at your local zoo, where you’ll find these slow-moving (but maybe not really “lazy”) creatures hanging upside down in the nocturnal house.

I got most of my information from a chapter in the book Leonardo’s Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms, by Stephen Jay Gould, who has written some of my favorite books on the subject of animals, paleontology and evolution. He passed away this year, and he will be sorely missed.

Be sure to check out this site about the Giant Ground Sloth, an extinct species from southern California and Mexico, that weighed a ton and had armor plating on it’s shoulders.

Recommended sites that I’ve found while surfing the Web:

Do you ever run across web pages that are so interesting and fun, you just have to tell people about them? That’s what this page is for – I think these pages are just too wonderful to pass up:

Digital images of bugs – taken with a very powerful lens

Beautiful paintings of ancient creatures
Good ideas for your next dragon?

Amazing wildlife photography by Hal Brindley

Find out where you’d end up if you dug straight down through the Earth.
Think you’d end up in China? Think again. (Check out the map, and then spring this question on your teacher. I’ll bet she gets it wrong.)

Hunkin’s Experiments
Cool cartoons that will have you experimenting with food, light, sound, clothes, and a whole lot more!! Hundreds of cartoon experiments from cartoonist, broadcaster and engineer Tim Hunkin.

www.wwwcomcom.com
Wonderfully weird art by Japanes artist Naoto Hattori.

Tasmanian-Tiger.com
This site is dedicated to The Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial once common throughout Australia and Papua New Guinea. This animal is believed to have been hunted to extinction by the early European settlers of Tasmania, its last stronghold. However, the sightings of the Tasmanian Tiger are reported occasionally, and it may still be in existence.

Home-Sweet-Mexico.com. For those who want to work, live, or retire in Mexico.
This site provides free information on cultural differences, cost of living, health care, safety, conscientious travel, expatriate lifestyle in Mexico, and much more. You can also download your own copy of Mexico: The Trick is Living Here Second Edition. A unique, practical, and humorous guide to ease your transition when you work, live, or retire in Mexico.

Bored.com
When you have nothing better to do…

More Cool Art Sites

Anyone who has any interest in unicorns must see www.narwhal.org. According to this site, the economic need to find buyers for the tusks may have been the reason why unicorns don’t have rhino horns sticking out of their heads! Check out the site and see some real narwhal tusks up close – and read more about the origins of the unicorn myth.

If you’re a teacher or parent, this site on drawing development in kids is a wonderful resource. See how a child’s drawing naturally progresses from simple scribbles to naturalistic. Kids, you should note that between ages 14 and 16 the authors say that “Natural development will cease unless a conscious decision is made to improve drawing skills.” So that means that drawing may be natural, but true skill takes time and commitment to develop. For inspiration to get your creative juices going, there’s nothing better than looking at great art.

Check out the wonderful, quirky paintings by Kyle M Stone, the whimsical illustrations by Carla Pott, and the amazingly realistic paintings by Russian artist Stanislav Plutenko. Jackie Morris has some interesting dragon paintings, and Julie Paschkis has some very enticing paintings and posters.

I also found a free watercolor painting tutorial site – and here’s some more…

• Andrew S. Arconti – fantasy illustration
• Harry Potter for Seekers
• J K Rowling’s Official Site
• Live and Retire in Mexico
• News from Hawkhill Acres

See how many of these animal tracks you can recognize. It’s not as easy as it looks!

Download free wildlife art, and print on your own printer.

The PDF files will fill a standard 8 x 10 paper. The files are quite large, so be patient as they download. Right-Click on the images and choose Save Link or Save Target from the drop-down box to save the images to your computer.

You can print these drawings right on your own printer. You will need to have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, but if you don’t have it, you can install it for free by clicking on the link.

The background color of your prints will depend upon the color of the paper you choose to print them on.

These drawings may be reproduced for your personal use only. They may not be reproduced by any means for commercial use. All rights reserved.

© Jonni Good, 2001, drawfluffy.com

There’s another free poster on this site, of Pegasus, the winged horse from Greek mythology. Can you find him? Hint – he’s weird…