The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 1

The parish of Selborne lies in the extreme eastern corner of the county of Hampshire, bordering on the county of Sussex, and not far from the county of Surrey; is about fifty mi...

In the court of Norton farmhouse, a manor farm to the north-west of the village, on the white malms, stood within these twenty years a broad-leaved elm, or wych hazel, _ulmus fo...

The fossil-shells of this 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 curio...

This stone is in great request for hearth-stones, and the beds of ovens; and in lining of lime-kilns it turns to good account, for the workmen use sandy loam instead of mortar,...

Among the singularities of this place the two rocky, hollow lanes, the one to Alton, and the other to the forest, deserve our attention. These roads, running through the malm la...

Should I omit to describe with some exactness the forest of Wolmer, of which three-fifths perhaps lie in this parish, my account of Selborne would be very imperfect, as it is a...

Though large herds of deer do much harm to the neighbourhood, yet the injury to the morals of the people is of more moment than the loss of their crops. The temptation is irresi...

On the verge of the forest, as it is now circumscribed, are three considerable lakes, two in Oakhanger, of which I have nothing particular to say; and one called Bin's, or Bean'...

By way of supplement, I shall trouble you once more on this subject, to inform you that Wolmer, with her sister forest Ayles Holt, _alias_ Alice Holt, as it is called in old rec...

It has been my misfortune never to have had any neighbours whose studies have led them towards the pursuit of natural knowledge; so that, for want of a companion to quicken my i...

It will not be without impatience that I shall wait for your thoughts with regard to the _falco_; as to its weight, breadth, etc., I wish I had set them down at the time; but, t...

Sir,--It gave me no small satisfaction to hear that the _falco_ turned out an uncommon one. I must confess I should have been better pleased to have heard that I had sent you a...

_Query_.--Might not canary birds be naturalised to this climate, provided their eggs were put, in the spring, into the nests of some of their congeners, as goldfinches, greenfin...

Sir,--As in one of your former letters you expressed the more satisfaction from my correspondence on account of my living in the most southerly county, so now I may return the c...

Dear Sir,--If some curious gentleman would procure the head of a fallow-deer, and have it dissected, he would find it furnished with two spiracula, or breathing places, besides...

Dear Sir,--Some intelligent country people have a notion that we have in these parts a species of the _genus mustelinum_, besides the weasel, stoat, ferret, and polecat; a littl...

Dear Sir,--The history of the stone-curlew, _Charadrius oedicnemus_, is as follows. It lays its eggs, usually two, never more than three, on the bare ground, without any nest, i...

Dear Sir,--On Wednesday last arrived your agreeable letter of June 10th. It gives me great satisfaction to find that you pursue these studies still with such vigour, and are in...

Dear Sir,--I received your obliging and communicative letter of June 28th, while I was on a visit at a gentleman's house, where I had neither books to turn to nor leisure to sit...

Dear Sir,--I have now, past dispute, made out three distinct species of the willow-wrens (_motacillae trochili_) which constantly and invariably use distinct notes. But at the s...

It is I find in zoology as it is in botany; all nature is so full that that district produces the greatest variety which is the most examined. Several birds, which are said to b...

Dear Sir,--With regard to the _oedicnemus_, or stone-curlew, I intend to write very soon to my friend near Chichester, in whose neighbourhood these birds seem most to abound, an...

Dear Sir,--As to the peculiarity of jackdaws building with us under the ground in rabbit-burrows, you have, in part, hit upon the reason; for, in reality, there are hardly any t...

Dear Sir,--It is not improbable that the Guernsey lizard and our green lizards may be specifically the same; all that I know is, that, when some years ago many Guernsey lizards...

Dear Sir,--The _scaraboeus fullo_ I know very well, having seen it in collections, but have never been able to discover one wild in its natural state. Mr. Banks told me he thoug...

Dear Sir,--It gives me satisfaction to find that my account of the _ousel migration_ pleases you. You put a very shrewd question when you ask me how I know that their autumnal m...

Dear Sir,--I was much gratified by your communicative letter on your return from Scotland, where you spent some considerable time, and gave yourself good room to examine the nat...

Dear Sir,--Hedgehogs abound in my gardens and fields. The manner in which they eat the roots of the plantain in my grass-walks is very curious; with their upper mandible, which...

On Michaelmas Day, 1768, I managed to get a sight of the female moose belonging to the Duke of Richmond, at Goodwood; but was greatly disappointed, when I arrived at the spot, t...

Dear Sir,--Last month we had such a series of cold, turbulent weather, such a constant succession of frost, and snow, and hail, and tempest, that the regular migration or appear...

I forgot to mention in my last letter (and had not room to insert in the former) that the male moose, in rutting time, swims from island to island, in the lakes and rivers of No...

Dear Sir,--You saw, I find, the ring-ousels again among their native crags, and are farther assured that they continue resident in those cold regions the whole year. From whence...

Dear Sir,--After an ineffectual search in Linnaeus, Brisson, etc., I begin to suspect that I discern my brother's _hirundo hyberna_ in Scopoli's new discovered _hirundo rupestri...

Dear Sir,--I was much pleased to see, among the collection of birds from Gibraltar, some of those short-winged English summer birds of passage, concerning whose departure we hav...

Dear Sir,--There is an insect with us, especially on chalky districts, which is very troublesome and teasing all the latter end of the summer, getting into people's skins, espec...

Dear Sir,--Happening to make a visit to my neighbour's peacocks, I could not help observing that the trains of those magnificent birds appear by no means to be their tails, thos...

Dear Sir,--The summer through I have seen but two of that large species of bat which I call _vespertilio altivolans_, from its manner of feeding high in the air; I procured one...

Dear Sir,--On the 12th July I had a fair opportunity of contemplating the motions of the _caprimulgus_, or fern-owl, as it was playing round a large oak that swarmed with _scara...

Dear Sir,--By my journal for last autumn it appears that the house-martins bred very late, and stayed very late in these parts; for, on the 1st October, I saw young martins in t...

Dear Sir,--As you desire me to send you such observations as may occur, I take the liberty of making the following remarks, that you may, according as you think me right or wron...

Dear Sir,--Before your letter arrived, and of my own accord, I had been remarking and comparing the tails of the male and female swallow, and this ere any young broods appeared;...

It is matter of curious inquiry to trace out how those species of soft-billed birds that continue with us the winter through subsist during the dead months. The imbecility of bi...

Dear Sir,--Some future faunist, a man of fortune, will, I hope, extend his visits to the kingdom of Ireland; a new field and a country little known to the naturalist. He will no...

A pair of honey-buzzards, _Buteo opivorus_, _sive Vespivorus Raii_, built them a large shallow nest, composed of twigs and lined with dead beechen leaves, upon a tall, slender b...

As to the wild wood-pigeon, the _OEnas_, or _Vinago_, of Ray, I am much of your mind, and see no reason for making it the origin of the common house-dove: but suppose those that...

Dear Sir,--When I was in town last month I partly engaged that I would sometimes do myself the honour to write to you on the subject of natural history; and I am the more ready...

Dear Sir,--When I did myself the honour to write to you about the end of last June on the subject of natural history, I sent you a list of the summer birds of passage which I ha...

Dear Sir,--It was no small matter of satisfaction to me to find that you were not displeased with my little _methodus_ of birds. If there was any merit in the sketch, it must be...

Dear Sir,--Your observation that "the cuckoo does not deposit its egg indiscriminately in the nest of the first bird that comes in its way, but probably looks out a nurse in som...

Dear Sir,--I heard many birds of several species sing last year after Midsummer, enough to prove that the summer solstice is not the period that puts a stop to the music of the...

Dear Sir,--The severity and turbulence of last month so interrupted the regular process of summer migration, that some of the birds do but just begin to show themselves, and oth...

Dear Sir,--I am glad to hear that Kuckalm is to furnish you with the birds of Jamaica; a sight of the _hirundines_ of that hot and distant island would be a great entertainment...

There are doubtless many home internal migrations within this kingdom that want to be better understood: witness those vast flocks of hen-chaffinches that appear with us in the...

Dear Sir,--You are, I know, no great friend to migration; and the well-attested accounts from various parts of the kingdom seem to justify you in your suspicions, that at least...

Dear Sir,--From what follows, it will appear that neither owls nor cuckoos keep to one note. A friend remarks that many (most) of his owls hoot in B flat; but that one went almo...

Dear Sir,--When I ride about in the winter, and see such prodigious flocks of various kinds of birds, I cannot help admiring at these congregations, and wishing that it was in m...

Dear Sir,--As a gentleman and myself were walking on the 4th of last November, round the sea-banks at Newhaven, near the mouth of the Lewes river, in pursuit of natural knowledg...

Dear Sir,--While I was in Sussex last autumn, my residence was at the village near Lewes, from whence I had formerly the pleasure of writing to you. On the 1st November I remark...

Dear Sir,--The more I reflect on the στοργὴ of animals, the more I am astonished at its effects. Nor is the violence of this affection more wonderful than the shortness of its d...