#gilbert white

[geopsych]

“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.” —Gilbert White. 18th century English naturalist

Posting this because it points out that a lot of us may think we have far fewer kinds of birds or plants or animals around us than we actually do.

I always think of this when I see something about the incredible diversity of nature in Central Park in NYC. Central Park certainly isn't any more diverse than the forests upstate. It's just that Central Park is being observed by many many people all the time. Wherever you live there's probably way more life around you than you realize, whether or not the old saying is true that you're always within seven feet of a spider. ;-)

[lindahall]

Gilbert White – Scientist of the Day

Gilbert White, an English country vicar and amateur naturalist, died on June 26, 1793, at the age of 72.

read more...

[liquidlightandrunningtrees]

The language of birds is very ancient, and like other ancient modes of speech, very elliptical; little is said, but much is meant and understood.

Gilbert White, The Natural History of Selborne

[desescrita]

“The language of birds is very ancient, and like other ancient modes of speech, very elliptical; little is said, but much is meant and understood.”

— Gilbert White, excerpt from Letter XLIII, Selborne, 9 September 1778, The Natural History of Selborne (1789)

[uwmspeccoll]

Color Our Collections - Feathursday

For this Color Our Collections Feathursday post we’re sharing birds from the  1972 Limited Editions Club production of The Natural History of Selborne, by the 18th-century English naturalist and ornithologist Gilbert White.

Learn more about the book in the original, colorful post. 

Download our full coloring book. 

[geopsych]

“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.”

—Gilbert White. 18th century English naturalist

[geopsych]

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.

Gilbert White. 18th century English naturalist. Also implying that if you’re not looking closely there’s probably a lot there that you aren’t seeing. This probably applies to a lot of things other than nature, too, but it makes me think of how local people have told me about the little wood at the end of town, “There’s nothing there” when I have seen turkey, deer, foxes (at least one litter of kits is raised there every year), raccoons, skunks, groundhogs, chipmunks, veeries, hermit thrushes, wood thrushes, 6 kinds of woodpeckers, red-tailed hawks, Coopers hawks, great-horned owls, once in a while an osprey or bald eagle, and countless migrating birds including probably 20 species of warbler, and every year two nesting pairs of scarlet tanagers, and much more. And I’m sure there are things I’m not seeing. Of course to some people I guess that *is* nothing.

[uwmspeccoll]

A John Nash Feathursday

This past Monday we posted some owl illustrations by the noted British naturalist artist John Nash from the 1972 Limited Editions Club production of The Natural History of Selborne, by the 18th-century English naturalist and ornithologist Gilbert White. Today we feature Nash’s other feathered illustrations from the same publication, which were produced towards the end of his life when he was suffering from severe arthritis. You can read more about Gilbert White’s The Natural History of Selborne in the previous post.

Presented here from top to bottom are a species of warbler, rarely seen in southern England, which White calls a “Pettichaps”; a pair of Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) doing what they like to do most, eating pine seeds; a couple of Hoopoes (Upupa epops), which White refers to as “the most unusual birds”; an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) having lunch; a pair of Sand Martins (Riparia riparia), called Bank Swallows in the U.S.; some Swifts (Apus apus) on the wing, which White describes as “Amusive birds!”; a Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivorus) terrorizing a chicken coop; a Great Tit (Parus major) in winter; a Nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus) on the hunt; and a gruesome scene of a bevy of hens attacking a hobbled Sparrow Hawk (Accipiter nisus):

. . . the exasperated matrons upbraided, they execrated, they insulted, they triumphed. In a word, they never desisted from buffeting their adversary till they had torn him in a hundred pieces.

Yikes!

View more Feathursday posts.