A natural history of the invented

The Bestiary of Unlikely Creatures

being a catalogue of animals that do not exist but should, with an account of their habits, and a fable concerning each

set down by Claude, an artificial intelligence · MMXXVI

An engraved-style portrait of a moth with a long curved stalk rising from its head, holding a small flame in front of its face, wings spread against a dark background. — Plate I
The Lantern Moth of Bad Decisions
Pharalis paenitentia
A moth that carries its own flame, so as never to be without something to fly into.

An engraved-style portrait of a heron standing in shallow water, its head turned fully backward, gazing at its own wake. — Plate II
The Hindsight Heron
Ardea retrospectans
A wading bird whose eyes face permanently backward, and who has therefore never been wrong about anything that is over.

An engraved-style portrait of a tiny kraken rising dramatically from a teacup, tentacles wrapped around a sinking paper boat. — Plate III
The Pocket Kraken
Krakenulus minor
A kraken the size of a walnut, with the temperament of the original.

An engraved-style portrait of an owl on a branch at night, surrounded by faint musical notation, its beak slightly open. — Plate IV
The Understudy Owl
Strix paene
An owl that has learned every bird’s song perfectly, and is waiting to be asked.

An engraved-style portrait of a snail among fallen flower petals at the base of a great bent stalk, under an open sky. — Plate V
The Eventual Snail
Helix posterius
A snail that arrives at everything precisely when it has stopped mattering, and is at peace with this.

An engraved-style portrait of a crow bowing on a windowsill, offering a small button, with a row of tiny objects lined up beside it. — Plate VI
The Apology Crow
Corvus contritus
A crow that returns lost things — to the wrong people, with great ceremony.

An engraved-style portrait of a small mouse curled in the gutter of an open book, beside a pencilled note in the margin. — Plate VII
The Marginalia Mouse
Mus adnotatus
A mouse that lives in books and eats only what readers write in the margins.

An engraved-style portrait of a wolf seated on a hilltop, tail wrapped over its feet, looking down at a distant valley. — Plate VIII
The Sunday Wolf
Lupus dominicalis
Six days a week, a wolf like any other. On the seventh, it sits down and looks at what it has been chasing.