The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne: With Observations on Various Parts of Nature and the Naturalist's CalendarG. Routledge, 1904 - 475 Seiten |
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abound animals appear April autumn Berne birds of prey bishop Bishop of Winchester breed brood called canons chaffinches church colour common cuckoo curious DEAR district eggs election feet female fieldfares flocks forest frequent garden Gilbert White ground Gurdon Hanger haunt hedges hirundines hirundo house-martins inches insects July July 13 July 22 June June 17 June 9 Knights Templars late legs LETTER Linnæus Magdalen College male manner March MARKWICK mentioned migration mild Motacilla natural history nest never night November observed parish perhaps priory priory of Selborne probably procured quadrupeds rain remarkable ring-ousels season seems Selborne Seleburne Sept showers sings snow soon species spring stone-curlew summer suppose swallow swarm swift titmouse trees vast vicar village weather White wild wings winter Wolmer wonder woods young
Beliebte Passagen
Seite 168 - The swallow lays from four to six white eggs, dotted with red specks ; and brings out her first brood about the last week in June, or the first week in July. The progressive method by which the young are introduced into life is very amusing : first, they emerge from the shaft with difficulty enough, and often fall down into the rooms below : for a day or so they are fed on the chimney top, and then are conducted to the dead leafless bough of some tree, where, sitting in a row, they are attended with...
Seite 199 - ... it is supposed that a shrew-mouse is 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.
Seite 9 - ... the fatal day arrived in which the wood was to be levelled. It was in the month of February, when those birds usually sit. The saw was applied to the butt, the wedges were inserted into the opening, the woods echoed to the heavy blows of the beetle or mallet, the tree nodded to its fall ; but still the dam 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...
Seite 150 - If attended to, it becomes an excellent weatherglass : for as sure as it walks elate, and as it were on tiptoe, feeding with great earnestness in a morning, so sure will it rain before night. It is totally a diurnal animal, and never pretends to stir after it becomes dark. The tortoise...
Seite 160 - The shell, or crust, of the nest is a sort of rustic work full of knobs and protuberances on the outside : nor is the inside of those that I have examined smoothed with any exactness at all ; but is rendered soft...
Seite 212 - For to say nothing of half the birds, and some quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants by drawing straws and stalks of leaves into it ; and, most of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth, called worm-casts, which, being their excrement, is a fine manure for...
Seite 26 - 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.
Seite 199 - 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...
Seite 200 - ... afflicted with cruel 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.
Seite 168 - ... in general with us this hiruiido breeds in chimneys ; and loves to haunt those stacks where there is a constant fire, no doubt for the sake of warmth. Not that it can subsist in the immediate shaft where there is a fire ; but prefers one adjoining to that of the kitchen, and disregards the perpetual smoke of that funnel, as I have often observed with some degree of wonder.