"THE FLAMINGO'S SMILE is about history," writes the author in this volume of essays, "... and about what it means to say that life is the product of a contingent past, not the inevitable and predictable result of simple, timeless laws of nature. Quirkiness and meaning are my two not-so-contradictory themes. " Flamingos that feed upside down; flowers and snails that change from male to female; the probability that an errant asteroid sounded the death knell of the dinosaurs and ushered in the evolution of mankind... these are only a few of the things that open our eyes to the endless delights of Gould's subject... evolutionary theory.