The Natural History of Selborne: With Miscellaneous Observations and Explanatory Notes |
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Page 17
... looked after , with all its kindly aspects , and all its sloping coverts , would swarm with game ; even now hares , partridges , and pheasants abound ; and in old days woodcocks were as plentiful . There are few quails , because they ...
... looked after , with all its kindly aspects , and all its sloping coverts , would swarm with game ; even now hares , partridges , and pheasants abound ; and in old days woodcocks were as plentiful . There are few quails , because they ...
Page 40
... looked like young ones . " * ] * We have given Mr. White's speculations concerning the martins entire , because they are mixed up with much inte- resting matter respecting these elegant birds , but all idea of their hybernating during ...
... looked like young ones . " * ] * We have given Mr. White's speculations concerning the martins entire , because they are mixed up with much inte- resting matter respecting these elegant birds , but all idea of their hybernating during ...
Page 41
... looked round them , and shooting forwards by short jerks , they caught the flying insects ; at other times they hovered in the air , and dropped like a hawk on their prey.-ED. The willow - wren ( Motacilla , now Sylvia , trochilus ) ...
... looked round them , and shooting forwards by short jerks , they caught the flying insects ; at other times they hovered in the air , and dropped like a hawk on their prey.-ED. The willow - wren ( Motacilla , now Sylvia , trochilus ) ...
Page 48
... looked on as the typical nocturnal owl , whose shriek , if the belief in ghosts had not become ex- tinct , might reasonably enough create feelings of supernatu- ral dread . When taken young from the nest , they are not supposed to be ...
... looked on as the typical nocturnal owl , whose shriek , if the belief in ghosts had not become ex- tinct , might reasonably enough create feelings of supernatu- ral dread . When taken young from the nest , they are not supposed to be ...
Page 211
... looked timidly into the yard , considered the risk for a minute or two , and allowed another to take its place . During all this time the parent birds kept diving about within a few feet of the nest , often fluttering with- in a few ...
... looked timidly into the yard , considered the risk for a minute or two , and allowed another to take its place . During all this time the parent birds kept diving about within a few feet of the nest , often fluttering with- in a few ...
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Natural History of Selborne: With Its Antiquities, Naturalist's Calendar, Etc. Gilbert White No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
abound Andalusia animals appear April autumn birds birds of prey breed brood called chaffinches colour common common buzzard congeners cuckoo curious curlew district eggs feed feet female fern-owl fieldfares fields flies flocks forest frequently frost garden ground Hanger haunt hawk hedges hirundines Hirundo HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON house-martins inches insects known late le ham legs LETTER Linnæus M'Gillivray male manner martins migration morning Motacilla natural history naturalist neighbouring nest never night observed owls pair perhaps ponds prey procured quadrupeds remarkable remiges retire ring-dove ring-ousels rooks says season seems seen SELBORNE shot sing snow soft-billed song soon species spring stone-curlew strange summer suppose Sussex swallow swifts tail THOMAS PENNANT thrush tion titmouse trees vast Vespertilio village weather white-throat wild wings winter Wolmer wonder woodcocks Woodlark woods wren young
Popular passages
Page 80 - 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 408 - Arch-Angel ruin'd, 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 182 - No part of its behaviour ever struck me more than the extreme timidity it always expresses with regard to rain ; for though it has a shell that would secure it against the wheel of a loaded cart, yet does it discover as much solicitude about rain as a lady dressed in all her best attire, shuffling away on the first sprinklings, and running its head up in a corner.
Page 199 - Thus careful workmen when they build mud walls (informed at first perhaps by this little bird) raise but a moderate layer at a time, and then desist ; lest the work should become top-heavy, and so be ruined by its own weight. By this method in about ten or twelve days is formed an hemispheric nest with a small aperture towards the top, strong, compact, and warm ; and perfectly fitted for all the purposes for which it was intended.
Page 278 - ... it is supposed that a shrewmouse ia of so baneful and deleterious a nature, that wherever it creeps over a beast, be it horse, cow, or sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted with cruel anguish, and threatened with the loss of the use of the limb.
Page 158 - MILTOK. but scout and hurry along in little detached parties of six or seven in a company ; and sweeping low, just over the surface of the land and water, direct their course to the opposite continent at the narrowest passage they can find.
Page 184 - Zoology (the stoparola of Ray) builds every year in the vines that grow on the walls of my house. A pair of these little birds had one year inadvertently placed their nest on a naked bough, perhaps in a shady time, not being aware of the inconvenience that followed. But...