Gerald Durrell - The Whispering Land

toukan, or toucan – a brightly colored, fruit-eating bird of tropical America, distinguished by a large, down curved beak

fungi – any of a group of plants, including mildew, molds, mushrooms, rusts and toadstools that have no leaves or flowers, and reproduce by means of spores

Venetian glass – fine glassware made in or near Venice

The author means that the gloomy and sinister landscape would have been a suitable place for the meeting of the three witches in the opening scene of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

anti-coagulant – a substance that prevents coagulation of blood

ticks – a large group of wingless insects that attach themselves to the skin of men or animals and suck their blood

birds of a feather flock together – a proverb which means that people with the same characteristics or tastes gather, assemble together

to stalk – to get close (usually to game) cautiously and noiselessly, without being seen, heard, or winded; the figure of a stalking Red Indian is familiar from numerous American works of fiction (e. g. novels by James Fenimore Cooper)

tree-snake – a variety of grass-snake, a small non-poisonous snake, having a very beautiful coloring of yellow, green and black with metal gleam, and living in trees and brushes

dropping (usually pl.) – dung of animals

lovesick swain (poet.) – a country youth hopelessly in love, so much in love as to feel sick or unhappy

boudoir ['bu: dwa: ] – literally, 'a place to sulk in', from Fr. bouder 'to sulk'; formerly, the name was applied to a lady's private sitting-room or dressing-room, now it may mean any small private room, or even, as here, a bedroom (usually ironical)

Here we find an interplay of the two meanings of the noun extremity:

1) pl. 'the hands and feet';

2) 'an extreme measure'.

The author speaks of this part of his anatomy as if it were some sort of food, like, say, "frozen leg of mutton" (note the absence of article).

Scott, Robert Falcon (1868–1912) – English naval officer and explorer, leader of two Antarctic expeditions, in the second of which he reached the South Pole (18th January 1912). Scott himself and the rest of the Pole party perished on the return journey.

overdraft – a withdrawal of money from a bank in excess of the amount credited to the drawer; the amount withdrawn in excess

the National Debt – the result of different credit operations of the state to get money necessary for meeting the expenditures which are not secured by the national income

rabies ['reibi: z] – an infectious virus disease of the central nervous system in dogs and other flesh-eating animals; it can be transmitted to man by the bite of an infected animal and is characterized by choking convulsions, inability to swallow liquids, etc.; it is fatal if not treated immediately (also called hydrophobia)

a rake-off (U.S. slang) – a commission or profit, especially when received in an illegitimate transaction

a whole-time job – a job that takes up all your time

The author means that the sum amounted to a fantastically big figure, reminding one of what a light-year stands for (a distance of approximately 6,000,000,000,000 miles that light travels, in one year). The Astronomer Royal – the Royal Astronomer Society in England.

there was nothing for it – there was nothing to be done

pigeon-toed – with the toes turned inwards

by the hour – for hours on end

scent gland – a special kind of gland of certain animals, as skunks, coatimundis and others, producing a substance with an offensive smell; it serves them for marking their territories and as a means of defence

having… hoisted the coatimundi equivalent of the flag – having marked his territory to show that it was occupied (this is what a hoisted, i.e. raised, flag usually shows)

within range – a military expression, where range means 'firing range', 'range of a shot'

to lord it over somebody – to rule over somebody, to act in an overbearing, dictatorial manner

Durrell invents this name in imitation of other children's games.

let alone – not to mention, to say nothing of

douroucoulis – genus of monkeys, the family of capuchin: a South American monkey with a whitish face and a hoodlike crown of black hair

a stick of rock – i.e. of rock candy, hard sweetmeat made of sugar

nothing loath to leaving – quite willing to leave

aviary ['eivjari] – a large cage for keeping many birds

fly-blown – full of flies' eggs and larvae; hence dirty, contaminated

cabinet – a case with drawers or shelves to hold (or house) small objects of art, jewels, etc.

unicorn – a fabulous animal resembling a horse with a single twisted horn, chiefly known from its heraldic representation (facing the lion) in the British royal arms; Piccadilly – a fashionable street in London, between Haymarket and Hyde Park Corner

are not two a penny – are not too common, are not so easy to find. The expression comes from a street-pedlar cry, preserved in the following old nursery-rhyme:

The words care of (or, in short, c/o ) are placed on the envelope before the name of the person who is expected to transmit the letter to the actual addressee (for instance, if the latter is staying in his house).

sleeper – any of the parallel crossbeams to which the rails of a railroad (the track) are fastened

the train crash of the century – the most sensational train crash of our age; of the century has become quite a catch-phrase: in the newspapers one reads of the murder of the century, of the museum-robbery of the century, and even of the winter of the century (said of an unusually cold winter)

a Western film, often called simply a Western (the same as a Wild West film) – in U. S. A. cinematography, a motion picture about the adventures of cowboys or frontier men in the far West of the United States during its so-called "early period of lawlessness", i.e. the beginning of the 19th century

cowcatcher – a metal frame on the front of a locomotive to remove obstructions from the tracks