The Natural History of SelborneLane, 1902 - 552 pages |
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Page 87
... cold abates . If this be the case , here is discovered a new bird of winter passage , concerning whose migrations the writers are silent ; but if these birds should prove the ousels of the north of England , then here is a migration ...
... cold abates . If this be the case , here is discovered a new bird of winter passage , concerning whose migrations the writers are silent ; but if these birds should prove the ousels of the north of England , then here is a migration ...
Page 104
... cold abates , so I concluded that the ring - ousels did the same , as well as their congeners the fieldfares ; and especially as ring - ousels are known to haunt cold mountainous countries : but I have good reason to suspect since that ...
... cold abates , so I concluded that the ring - ousels did the same , as well as their congeners the fieldfares ; and especially as ring - ousels are known to haunt cold mountainous countries : but I have good reason to suspect since that ...
Page 108
... cold and northerly , and sequestered enough , is a circumstance still more strange and wonderful . The ring - ousel , you find , stays in Scotland the whole year round ; so that we have reasons to conclude that those migrators that ...
... cold and northerly , and sequestered enough , is a circumstance still more strange and wonderful . The ring - ousel , you find , stays in Scotland the whole year round ; so that we have reasons to conclude that those migrators that ...
Page 117
... cold turbulent weather , such a constant suc- cession of frost , and snow , and hail , and tem- pest , that the regular migration or appearance of the summer birds was much interrupted . Some did not show themselves ( at least were not ...
... cold turbulent weather , such a constant suc- cession of frost , and snow , and hail , and tem- pest , that the regular migration or appearance of the summer birds was much interrupted . Some did not show themselves ( at least were not ...
Page 121
... cold regions the whole year . From whence then do our ring - ousels migrate so regularly every September , and make their appearance again , as if in their return , every April ? They are more early this year than common , for some were ...
... cold regions the whole year . From whence then do our ring - ousels migrate so regularly every September , and make their appearance again , as if in their return , every April ? They are more early this year than common , for some were ...
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Common terms and phrases
abound animals appear April autumn birds of prey breed brood called chaffinches Church cuckoo curious Daines Barrington district eggs feet female fern-owl fieldfares fields flies forest Frank Buckland frequent garden Gilbert White Gilbert White's Greatham ground Hanger hard frost haunt hedges hirundines hirundo house-martins inches insects July July 13 July 22 June June 11 June 22 June 9 last seen late legs LETTER Linnæus London male manner MARKWICK migration mild Motacilla natural history Naturalist's Calendar included nest never Newton Valence night perhaps ponds quadrupeds rain remarkable ring-dove ring-ousels sand-martin season seems Selborne Sept showers sings snow species spring stone-curlew summer suppose Sussex swallow swarm swift tail titmouse trees vast village volume warm weather White wild wings winter Wolmer wonder woods wren young
Popular passages
Page 178 - Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? Or wings and feathers unto the ostrich? Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, And warmeth them in the dust, And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, Or that the wild beast may break them. She is hardened against her young ones, As though they were not hers...
Page 37 - 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 402 - 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 103 - While o'er the cliff th' awaken'd churn-owl hung, Through the still gloom protracts his chattering song ; While, high in air, and poised upon his wings, Unseen, the soft enamour'd woodlarkf sings : These, Nature's works, the curious mind employ, Inspire a soothing melancholy joy : As fancy warms, a pleasing kind of pain Steals o'er the cheek, and thrills the creeping vein ! Each rural sight, each sound, each smell combine ; The tinkling sheep-bell, or the breath of kine ; The new-mown hay that scents...
Page 227 - Creation with the utmost satisfaction, and thinks them equal to anything he had seen in the finest parts of Europe. "For my own part, I think there is somewhat peculiarly -sweet and amusing in the shapely figured aspect of chalkhills in preference to those of stone, which are rugged, broken, abrupt and shapeless.
Page 275 - Now a shrew-ash is an ash whose twigs or branches, when gently applied to the limbs of cattle, will immediately relieve the pains which a beast suffers from the running of a shrew-mouse over the part affected...
Page 103 - Till blended objects fail the swimming sight, And all the fading landscape sinks in night ; To hear the drowsy dor come brushing by With buzzing wing, or the shrill ' cricket cry ; To see the feeding bat glance through the wood ; To catch the distant falling of the flood ; While o'er the cliff th...
Page 402 - ... any alteration in the air. The sun, at noon, looked as blank as a clouded moon, and shed a rust-coloured ferruginous light on the ground and floors of rooms ; but was particularly lurid and bloodcoloured at rising and setting. All the time the heat was so intense that butchers...
Page 216 - I have paid good attention to the manner of life of these birds during their season of breeding, which lasts the summer through, the following remarks may not perhaps be unacceptable : — About an hour before sunset (for then the mice begin to run; they sally forth in quest of prey, and hunt all round the hedges of meadows and small enclosures for them, which seem to be their only food. In this irregular country...
Page 161 - And leaves her callow care, and cleaves the skies : At first she flutters ; but at length she springs To smoother flight, and shoots upon her wings : So Mnestheus in the Dolphin cuts the sea ; And, flying with a force, that force assists his way.