The Natural History of Selborne: With Observations on Various Parts of Nature, and the Naturalist's CalendarHenry G. Bohn, 1861 - 416 pages |
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Page ix
... district where Selborne is situate . A person with this writer's patient observation would have made many remarks highly valuable . Men of intelligence , like him , are wanted to promote an intimacy between the library and the plough ...
... district where Selborne is situate . A person with this writer's patient observation would have made many remarks highly valuable . Men of intelligence , like him , are wanted to promote an intimacy between the library and the plough ...
Page 13
... district are almost as various and diversified as the views and aspects . The high part to the south - west consists of a vast hill of chalk , rising three hundred feet above the village ; and is divided into a sheep - down , the high ...
... district are almost as various and diversified as the views and aspects . The high part to the south - west consists of a vast hill of chalk , rising three hundred feet above the village ; and is divided into a sheep - down , the high ...
Page 20
... district , and sorts of stone , such as have fallen within my observation , must not be passed over in silence . And , first , I must mention , as a great curiosity , a specimen that was ploughed up in the chalky fields , near the side ...
... district , and sorts of stone , such as have fallen within my observation , must not be passed over in silence . And , first , I must mention , as a great curiosity , a specimen that was ploughed up in the chalky fields , near the side ...
Page 24
... district . Those who tread the bounds are employed part of three days in the business , and are of opinion that the outline , in all its curves and indentings , does not comprise less than thirty miles . The village stands in a ...
... district . Those who tread the bounds are employed part of three days in the business , and are of opinion that the outline , in all its curves and indentings , does not comprise less than thirty miles . The village stands in a ...
Page 25
... district abounding with many curious productions , both animal and vegetable ; and has often afforded me much entertainment , both as a sportsman and as a naturalist . * The royal Forest of Wolmer is a tract of land of about seven miles ...
... district abounding with many curious productions , both animal and vegetable ; and has often afforded me much entertainment , both as a sportsman and as a naturalist . * The royal Forest of Wolmer is a tract of land of about seven miles ...
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Common terms and phrases
abound animal appear April April 14 April 22 autumn beech birds of passage breed brood called chaffinches cold colour common cuckoo curious DAINES BARRINGTON DEAR district dogs eggs feed feet female fieldfares flies flocks forest frequently garden Gilbert White grass ground hatched haunt hedges hirundines hirundo house-martins inches insects July July 13 July 22 June June 11 June 22 June 9 late legs LETTER Linnæus male manner March March 26 MARKWICK mentioned migration mild morning Motacilla naturalist neighbourhood nest never night observed perhaps prey quadrupeds rain remarkable rooks says season seems SELBORNE Sept showers sings snow soon species spring stone curlew suppose Sussex swallows swifts tail THOMAS PENNANT titmouse torpid trees vast village warm weather WHITE wild wings winter Wolmer woodcocks woods wren young
Popular passages
Page 136 - Part loosely wing the region, part more wise In common, ranged in figure wedge their way, Intelligent of seasons, and set forth Their airy caravan high over seas Flying, and over lands with mutual wing Easing their flight...
Page 82 - For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: but the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
Page 300 - Less than archangel ruined, and the excess Of glory obscured ; as when the sun, new risen, Looks through the horizontal misty air Shorn of his beams, or from behind the moon, In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations, and with fear of change Perplexes monarchs.
Page 214 - ... anguish, and threatened with the loss of the use of the limb. Against this accident, to which they were continually liable, our provident forefathers always kept a shrew-ash at hand, which, when once medicated, would maintain its virtue for ever. A shrew-ash was made thus:* — Into the body of the tree, a deep hole was bored with an auger, and a poor devoted shrew-mouse was thrust in alive, and plugged in, no doubt, with several quaint incantations, long since forgotten.
Page 212 - ... his finger on the hives, and so take the bees as they came out. He has been known to overturn hives for the sake of honey, of which he was passionately fond. Where metheglin was making he would linger round the tubs and vessels, begging a draught of what he called bee-wine. As he ran about he used to make a humming noise with his lips, resembling the buzzing of bees. This lad was lean and sallow, and of a cadaverous complexion ; and, except in his favourite pursuit, in which he was wonderfully...
Page 146 - I saw it distinctly, more than once, put out its short leg while on the wing, and by a bend of the head, deliver somewhat into its mouth. If it takes any part of its prey with its foot, as I have now the greatest reason to suppose it does these chafers, I no longer wonder at the use of its middle toe, which is curiously furnished with a serrated claw...
Page 206 - Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl, So well converse, nor with the ox the ape; Worse then can man with beast, and least of all.
Page 33 - Now scarcely moving through a reedy pool, Now starting to a sudden stream, and now Gently diffus'd into a limpid plain ; A various group the herds and flocks compose, Rural confusion ! on the grassy bank Some ruminating lie ; while others stand Half in the flood, and often bending, sip The circling surface.
Page 256 - They are the housewife's barometer, foretelling her when it will rain; and are prognostics sometimes, she thinks, of ill or good luck, of the death of a near relation or the approach of an absent lover. By being the constant companions of her solitary hours they naturally become the objects of her superstition.
Page 143 - Faunists, as you observe, are too apt to acquiesce in bare descriptions, and a few synonyms: the reason is plain : because all that may be done at home in a man's study; but the investigation of the life and conversation of animals is a concern of much more trouble and difficulty, and is not to be attained but by the active and inquisitive, and by those that reside much in the country.