A reprint of a classical work in the Cambridge Library Collection.
Although devoted to his parish, Leonard Jenyns (1800-93) combined his clerical duties with keen research into natural history. Notably, he was offered the place on the Beagle that later went to Charles Darwin. His numerous works include A Manual of British Vertebrate Animals (1835) and Observations in Meteorology (1858), both of which are reissued in this series.
First published in 1846, the present work was originally intended as a companion volume to Gilbert White's acclaimed Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789), which Jenyns had copied out as a student at Eton. The product of two decades of meticulous observation of Jenyns' surroundings in eastern England, the text includes journal entries with careful records on a wide variety of wildlife, including quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fish, insects and molluscs. Also featuring a detailed calendar of periodic phenomena, this work illuminates the rhythms and quirks of the natural world in England.
- Preface
- Introduction
- Observations on quadrupeds
- Observations on birds
- Notes on particular species of birds
- Observations on reptiles
- Observations on fishes
- Observations on insects
- Observations on worms
- Observations on mollusks
- Remarks on the importance of registers of periodic phenomena in natural history
- Calendar of periodic phenomena in natural history
- Alphabetical arrangement of the phenomena in the foregoing calendar
- General index