(From the introduction)

"Despite the fact that their native home was unknown, Snouters had been mentioned on one previous occasion. No lesser personage than the poet Christian Morgenstern some sixty years ago announced the existence of the Snouters in his well-known poem:

'Along on its probosces there goes the nasobame¹ accompanied by its young one It is not found in Brehm.†

It is not found in Meyer, †† Nor in the Brockhaus †† anywhere. 'Twas only through my lyre we knew it had been there.

Thenceforth on its probosces (above I've said the same) accompanied by its offspring there goes the nasobame.'

¹ nasus Lat.=nose; Bema Grk = to walk. † classical German treatise on zoolygy, first edition 1863, fourth (last) edition 1918. †† names of well-known German encyclopedias."

— The Snouters by Harald Stumpke