Natural History and Antiquities of SelborneMacmillan, 1877 - 591 pages |
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Page 41
... chaffinches have appeared in the fields ; many more , I used to think , than could be hatched in any one neigh- bourhood . But , when I came to observe them more narrowly , I was amazed to find that they seemed to me to be almost all ...
... chaffinches have appeared in the fields ; many more , I used to think , than could be hatched in any one neigh- bourhood . But , when I came to observe them more narrowly , I was amazed to find that they seemed to me to be almost all ...
Page 49
... chaffinches have not yet forsaken us . The blackbirds and thrushes are very much thinned down by that fierce weather in January . In the middle of February I discovered , in my tall hedges , a little bird that raised my curiosity ; it ...
... chaffinches have not yet forsaken us . The blackbirds and thrushes are very much thinned down by that fierce weather in January . In the middle of February I discovered , in my tall hedges , a little bird that raised my curiosity ; it ...
Page 117
... chaffinches that appear with us in the winter with hardly any cocks among them . Now , was there a due CHAFFINCH'S EGG . proportion of each sex , it would seem very improbable that any one district should produce such numbers of these ...
... chaffinches that appear with us in the winter with hardly any cocks among them . Now , was there a due CHAFFINCH'S EGG . proportion of each sex , it would seem very improbable that any one district should produce such numbers of these ...
Page 118
... chaffinches , and particularly linnets , flock and congregate as much in the very dead of winter as when the husbandman is busy with his ploughs and harrows . Surely there can be no doubt but that woodcocks and field- fares leave us in ...
... chaffinches , and particularly linnets , flock and congregate as much in the very dead of winter as when the husbandman is busy with his ploughs and harrows . Surely there can be no doubt but that woodcocks and field- fares leave us in ...
Page 145
... chaffinches all the winter , with hardly any males among them . When you say that in breeding time the cock - snipes make a bleating noise , and I a drumming sound ( perhaps I should have rather said a humming ) , I suspect we mean the ...
... chaffinches all the winter , with hardly any males among them . When you say that in breeding time the cock - snipes make a bleating noise , and I a drumming sound ( perhaps I should have rather said a humming ) , I suspect we mean the ...
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Common terms and phrases
Allectus animal appear April autumn bird-catchers birds bishop Bishop of Winchester blackcap Blackmoor breed called canons Carausius chaffinches church colour common cuckoo curious deer district eggs feed feet fieldfares fish flocks frequently frost garden Gilbert White grass ground hirundines Hirundo HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON horse house-martins inches insects July July 14 July 22 June June 11 June 22 June 9 late legs LETTER Linnæus living London manner martins migration natural neighbourhood neighbouring nest never Newton Valence night nightingales observed owls parish Pond prior remarkable season seems seen Selborne Selebourne Sept sings snake song species specimen spot spring stone-curlew summer suppose swallow swift tail THOMAS PENNANT thrush titmouse trees village viper wagtail weather wild wings winter Wolmer Forest wood wren young
Popular passages
Page 462 - Some trust in chariots, and some in horses : but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. . 8 They are brought down and fallen : but we are risen, and stand upright.
Page 272 - 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 54 - 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 123 - 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 a hot sunny season coming on before the brood was half fledged, the reflection of the wall became insupportable, and must inevitably have destroyed the tender young, had not affection suggested an expedient, and prompted the parent birds to hover over the nest all the hotter hours, while with wings expanded, and mouths gaping...
Page 120 - 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...
Page 131 - 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.
Page 5 - ... sat on. At last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from her nest; and, though her parental affection deserved a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which brought her dead to the ground.
Page 250 - ... methods which instinct effects by one alone. Now this maxim must be taken in a qualified sense; for there are instances in which instinct does vary and conform to the circumstances of place and convenience.
Page 184 - 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. As the ceremonies necessary for such a consecration are no longer understood, all succession is at an end, and no such tree is known to subsist in the manor, or hundred. As to that on the Plestor " The late vicar stubb'd and burnt it...
Page 131 - But then, that this work may not, while it is soft and green, pull itself down by its own weight, the provident architect has prudence and forbearance enough not to advance her work too fast ; but by building only in the morning, and by dedicating the rest of the day to food and amusement, gives it sufficient time to dry and harden. About half an inch seems to be a sufficient layer for a day.