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Natural
History
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here for current Cover to Cover Natural
History titles on ABE Will open in a new window - prices in UK Pounds. |
| Study
nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you. Frank Lloyd Wright |
| Selected Titles: |
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Studies
in Anglesey History Vol 8 - A New Natural History of Anglesey Helen Ramage (general editor) Anglesey Antiquarian Society 1990 Despite Anglesey’s proximity to the mainland of Wales (it is connected by two bridges across a narrow stretch of water) it is very much an island. It has the indefinable but exciting atmosphere common to all islands and has many of the features which distinguish the animals and plants of islands from those of the nearest mainland. Add to these a unique geology, an incomparable coastline and a mild maritime climate and something of the special quality of Anglesey becomes apparent. This book is a celebration of Anglesey’s natural
history and also a far-from-exhaustive record of the state of things here
towards the end of the twentieth century. This is a time of profound and
rapid change, some measure of which can be seen if reference is made to
a similar book (The Natural History of Anglesey, Vol. 2 in this series)
which appeared in 1968. As in the case of the earlier volume, the authors
hope that their contributions will encourage their readers to appreciate
this delectable island and to seek for ways in which it may be preserved. |
The Natural History of the Garden Michael Chinery Collins 1st 1977 For most of us, the garden is our most constant point of contact with nature. It may bear all the marks of human activity - paths, clipped lawns, compost heaps, fences, sheds, and greenhouses- but it is these things as much as anything else that make our gardens a haven for such a fantastic assortment of wild animals and plants. The very diversity of the garden ensures the incomparable variety of its inhabitants. This book is about the intruders in our gardens - a book about gardens for the naturalist, about natural history for the gardener. Michael Chinery, as naturalist, teacher, and self-confessedly untidy gardener, is the ideal author to lead us up this highly diverting garden path. Taking each group in turn, he introduces us to weeds, fungi, lichens, mosses, and other opportunists of the plant kingdom; and to the worms, slugs, snails, centipedes and millipedes, butterflies, bees, wasps, moles, hedgehogs, bats, mice, wrens, tits, finches, owls, swifts, swallows, and the host of other animals that take up unofficial residence in our gardens. He shows us where to look for them and how to recognise them when we have found them. He also tells us how we can garden/or wild life: a bird table or pond can give us endless entertainment throughout the year; and a few thistles in a sunny corner will attract all the common butterflies to the garden. There is much in this book to intrigue the reader, even to mute the ire of the most ruthless of gardeners. And it provides a ready and engaging answer for any parent whose child has ever asked 'What's that?'. 8vo. Minor discolouration to the board edges, otherwise VG++ in a Fine wrapper. 650 gms £10.00 |
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Alien Empire Christopher O'Toole BBC 1st 1995 Insects are everywhere and in vast numbers too. There are at least a million species, ranging from microscopic beetles and wasps to beetles which are larger and heavier than the smaller mammals. They inhabit desert and arctic tundra, land and sea; they are even in our homes and on our bodies. Unsung toilers on our behalf, they perform most of the major ecological tasks upon which we and all other species depend. Many animals, birds and people rely on them for food, while all of our fruits and many of our vegetables are entirely dependent on them for pollination. We need to know more about these extraordinarily beautiful and complex creatures to understand their vital role in maintaining our planet's life support systems so that we are better placed to conserve them and, ultimately, our own living space. Alien Empire, and the television series which it accompanies, open the doors into a world that we have never seen. We discover the design miracle of insects' bodies - external skeletons that can be adapted for any use; their sophisticated communication systems - on-board sensors which gather visual, auditory and scent data, with transmitters for emitting sound and light signals; how they function in co-operating groups; their fast and furious reproduction systems, and much much more about their strange structures and lives. As this book shows, in their looks and behaviour, insects are as close to an alien life form as any we are likely to find in the stars. With its many beautiful photographs and drawings, and its clearly written text, Alien Empire takes the reader on a spellbinding journey into another world. 4to. Fine in a VG+ wrapper. Page of information about the book from BBC laid in. 820 gms £9.00 |
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Fox's Tale Robin Page Hodder & Stoughton 1st 1986 The fox is one of the most beautiful yet secretive animals in the British Isles. Since his childhood Robin Page has been fascinated by foxes and has now produced a unique book which will interest and entertain all those with a love of wildlife and the countryside. Not only does he reveal the facts of the fox's private life, he gathers together many of the stories and country beliefs concerning the fox, to make an amusing and informative book. He brings together the foxes of fiction, fable and folklore reintroducing the reader to Brer Fox, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, the foxes of Aesop's Fables, as well as the Belstone Fox and those chased by Mr. Jorrocks. He explains how to tell when a fox is getting married; how foxes forecast the weather and how they manage to get pheasants down from tall trees. In addition he writes of his numerous encounters with wild foxes, many on the farm where he was born and still lives, as well as the succession of pet foxes that have romped with the farm dogs and raided the hen-houses. It is an amusing and delightful book, with just a hint of sadness. It will be appreciated by all those with an interest and love of country life. Fine+ in a VG++ wrapper. 408 gms £10.00 |
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Our
Garden Friends & Foes Rev. J G Wood George Routledge & Sons 1882 The object of this work is to furnish the reader with a guide to the various beings which can exercise any influence upon our gardens and greenhouses, to enable the cultivator to distinguish between his Friends and his Foes, and to give simple directions for encouraging the one and exterminating the other. The amateur florist will find in this work a list of several hundred beings which are commonly to be seen in gardens, and those who do not even possess a few yards of ground, and are forced to content themselves with in-door floriculture, may derive aid from its pages. In order to assist the reader in identifying the creatures which are described in the work, figures of all the principal objects have been given. The larval as well as the perfect forms of insects are mostly figured, and are all drawn of their natural dimensions. 8vo. Red boards, stamped gold and black titling + decoration to spine, stamped black + gold decoration to front board, black stamped decoration and publishers' initials to rear board. Bevel edged boards with very, very slight wear + very minor bumps, prize plate, dated 1892, to front pastedown, spine very, very slightly shaken, otherwise VG+. With upwards of two hundred illustrations by W S Coleman and other artists. 460 gms £25.00 |
The Natural History of Selborne Gilbert White Illustrations by Edmond H New Wordsworth 1989 This famous turn-of-the-century edition of Gilbert White's Natural History of Selbome has been carefully reprinted to celebrate the bicentenary of one of the best-loved of rural English classics. Edited, with a historical introduction, by Grant Allen, it was also magnificently illustrated by Edmund New, one of that remarkable harvest of illustrators who came to prominence at the end of the last century. The result was a perfect balance: an affectionate evocation of a world so well observed by a contented country curate. Gilbert White was born at the vicarage of the remote and secluded village of Selbome, Hampshire, on the 18th of July, 1720. Little is known of his quiet life other than that he was a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, that he was a curate of the parish of Selbome and elsewhere, and that he perhaps, before finally settling back in Hampshire after his days at Oxford, 'passed some time ... as a gendeman farmer in the Isle of Ely' . But, as Grant Allen goes on to say in his affectionate introduction to this perennially delightful book, the Reverend Gilbert White 'has left for us an account of his life ... far more graphic and valuable than any mere formal biography'. We owe it to the encouragement and correspondence of one Thomas Pennant, a Welshman who shared White's love of the natural world, that this 'account of his life' was begun, and continued over a period of almost twenty years. In answer to some questions of Pennant's, White 'entered into a brisk correspondence' around the year 1767, and as the correspondence grew, so Gilbert White was encouraged, by Pennant and others, to prepare his precise and loving observations of 'the natural history and antiquities ofSelbome' for publication. The Natural History ofSelbome first appeared in 1788-89. The edition here presented was published in 1900, and Edmund New's delicate line drawings radiate the peace and unhurried restfulness of eighteenth-century village life. Within these pages is a view of rural England now sadly far from us. The mechanisation and the urban invasion of even our remotest country places has driven this world far back into history. But through the eyes of the Reverend Gilbert White we can, for a time at least, re-enter the life 'passed tranquil and serene, with scarcely any other vicissitudes than those of the seasons'. There are 183 illustrations in all, including 72 of birds and other small animals, and of which 31 are full page, with 4 pages of maps. Fine in a price clipped VG++ wrapper. 970 gms £8.50 |
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