David George Haskell is a biology professor at The University of the South. In [i]The Forest Unseen[i] he traces the changing seasons on a small patch of Tennessee forest, much of it unseen -- well, at least unnoticed -- by most. There are deer and migratory birds, but there are also the processes by which leaves decompose, insects lay eggs in the bodies of other insects. Professor Haskell has not written a text book. Rather the tale compares with the observations of one of my favorites -- Thoreau.