It was midnight, as I sat on a camp-stool, and looked at the octopus, and he looked at me. Lights had been out in the aquarium since sunset, and I was locked in there alone, armed only with my flash light. For some months I had been having deep thoughts about the great silent world of fish, living, day and night, in the shadow of the oceans.
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In ‘Selborne’, his book on swallows, White says in early spring, he would notice a few of them about. They would disappear again if the weather happened to turn cold and stormy, and he concluded that they had gone back to their place of hibernation.
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They objected to my presence in the loft near the nest, the swallows fluttering rapidly about and uttering a sharp, scolding note. I noticed that father had the same experience with barn swallows in the barn at Woodchuck Lodge, and he translated this scolding note as “Sleet”, “Sleet.” Even when I sat down in a far corner, remaining motionless, they saw me instantly.
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In his seminal book on swallows entitled ‘Selborne’, White says, “Careful workmen when they build mud walls (informed at first perhaps by this little bird) raise but a moderate layer at a time.” I have known of masons who put up too much wall at a time, only to have it all fall down. In regard to this, and in commenting upon instinct as compared to reason, White says exactly what I have so often felt-that sometimes, under some conditions, instinct is wonderful and far superior to reason, while in other circumstances instinct can be utterly disastrous, reason being far…
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White’s ‘Selborne’ is both an immortal Nature classic and a most delightful book to read. Written more than one hundred and fifty years ago, it finds, as time goes on, new readers in every generation. Written with no thought of publication, being a series of letters to friends who were fellow naturalists, its enduring charm lives, not only in its Nature observations, but in the sincerity, honesty, and humility of spirit of White himself.
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Professor McKenny Hughes published a study in which he endeavoured to prove that the Chillingham cattle could not possibly be descended from the aurochs. In this he asserted they had “become extinct in Britain long before the Roman occupation.” He held that they have come chiefly from cattle introduced by the Romans. In contrast to this theory…
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Like nearly all-wild animals moving in herds, the Chillingham cattle have a leader. The strongest bull always acts as king of the herd until displaced by a younger rival. Anyone going near the herd must he particularly careful to keep at a respectful distance from the outcast bulls.
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Forests are known to be the place where you can find a variety of species of flora and fauna and are sustained through natural propagation. The term deforestation is somewhat most often linked with tree cutting, providing a negative notion on the term. Depending on mode of tree removal and subsequent land use, conversion from forest to terraced agriculture could prove more beneficial in terms of soil conservation than leaving the area under forest.
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“The Great Wood” of Chillingham (in Britain), as it was known, became the final retreat to which the beasts were driven by hunting and by increase of population. Those at Chillingham may have formed part of the aboriginal herds that roamed the mighty Caledonian Forest, which covered much of Scotland.
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At Chillingham, Northumberland, is the most famous herd of wild cattle in Britain, dwelling in natural surrounding in wild, unspoiled parkland studded with trees. This herd has been there since the Middle Ages-for six hundred years, at least, since the park where they roam has been enclosed for that period.
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