"The animal on the cover of Programming Perl, Third Edition is a dromedary (one-hump camel). Camels are large ruminant mammals, weighing between 1,000 and 1,600 pounds and standing six to seven feet tall at the shoulders. They are well known for their use as draft and saddle animals in the desert regions, especially of Africa and Asia. Camels can go for days without water. If food is scarce, they will eat anything, even their owner's tent. Camels live up to 50 years."

The explanation in the text (p. 4) is the following (look up "camel" in the index... Now I have to find out about "bloody camels" and "pink vs. blue camels"!)

"We often joke that a camel is a horse designed by a committee, but if you think about it, the camel is self-sufficient. (On the other hand, the camel has not evolved to smell good. Neither has Perl.) This is one of the many strange reasons we picked the camel to be Perl's mascot, but it doesn't have much to do with linguistics."

Camel II, at the very least, does contain a Colophon, but the page isn't numbered, and it isn't in the Table of Contents. I can't find my Camel III, but I assume it's more or less the same. The Colophon is three pages after the last grey (index) page.

OTOH, while it gives a paragraph-full of information about the camel, it gives nothing on why they decided to use a camel for the Camel.

It's on the back of the very last page of my 3rd. Ed. Camel here.


C.

Is that the original English edition, or do you happen to have it in German? Mine is German, and missing it.

Makeshifts last the longest.