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The Natural History of Selborne - Volume 1

Gilbert White

Book Overview: 

The Reverend Gilbert White was the curate of the village of Selborne, a village in Hampshire, from 1784 to his death in 1793, living most of his life in the village. The book is in the form of a collection of letters to two friends, discussing the natural history of the areas that he knew, and natural history in general. White’s intense curiosity and his love for the world about him flow through his simple, straightforward style, and a gentle sense of humor colors many of his anecdotes.

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .re a pair of hoopoes (upupa), which came several years ago in the summer, and frequented an ornamented piece of ground, which joins to my garden, for some weeks.  They used to march about in a stately manner, feeding in the walks, many times in the day; and seemed disposed to breed in my outlet; p. 43but were frighted and persecuted by idle boys, who would never let them be at rest.

Three grossbeaks (loxia coccothraustes) appeared some years ago in my fields, in the winter; one of which I shot.  Since that, now and then, one is occasionally seen in the same dead season.

A crossbill (loxia curvirostra) was killed last year in this neighbourhood.

Our streams, which are small, and rise only at the end of the village, yield nothing but the bull’s head or miller’s thumb (gobius fluviatilis capitatus), the trout (trutta fluviatilis), the eel (anguilla), the lampern (lampœtra parva et fluviatilis), and the stickleba. . . Read More

Community Reviews

This is one of the great books on biology that changed the world. Reading this today gives a perspective on how far we have come from believing the swallows hibernated in the mud. The world is both better understood and more fascinating for the discoveries of men like White. His writing is based on

This book is a series of letters written by Gilbert White (1720-1793) about the natural world within his parish in England. As he got coach sick (I had never even considered that to be a thing before reading this), he didn’t leave home much and developed an in-depth interest in nature by his home. T

The Natural History of Selborne is one of those classics I’ve always meant to read and never have, till an enforced stretch of idleness has induced me to turn to long-deferred projects (The Vicar of Wakefield is next). Selborne is not far from a place I am writing about, so this book could be seen a

I don't know if I wasn't in the right mood/frame of mind for this book, but I found the constant listing of things a little tedious. It was like reading a version of "I went to market and I saw ......"

Whilst White's observational skills are clearly second to none, his "presenting minutiae as intere

Whether it was me or the book's author (who does seem to get more progressively into the swing of things, allowing his philosophical reflections greater rein as these letters accrue over the years betwixt 1769 and 1787), it took me an unusually long time to get into the rhythm with this one. As late

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