An undated letter (probably 1775/’76) on p. 100 of the above book has added to it the colour plate shown above. To see a sparrow-hawk take its prey is a fearful sight, the final swoop to the prey being so lightening fast. The plate correctly shows the sparrow-hawk having gone for the throat of the […]
The Illustrated Natural History of Selborne 3 (3/08/2020). Read More »
The Rev. Gilbert White (see previous blog), being a keen gardener and observer of farming practices as he walked around his parish as well as being an ornithologist, wrote that harvest bugs (s.p.b.) gathered on kidney beans and legumes and that they could swarm in such numbers on the chalk South Downs as to discolour
The Illustrated Natural History of Selborne 2 (3/08/2020). Read More »
(Sorry for the ‘break in service’ – personal issues). If swifts, swallows and martins rely on winged insects, or more correctly insects on the wing, then this seems to be a niche food source and thus more susceptable to changing environmental conditions. On the short theme of flies I can remember as a child having
2nd August, 2020 The Illustrated Natural History of Selborne. Read More »