> as lemmas

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. viii. xii. 199 What reason should a man alledge of this so mortall warre betweene them, if it be not a very sport of Nature, and pleasure that she takes, in matching these two so great enemies together, and so euen and equall in each respect? [L. quam quis aliam tantae discordiae causam attulerit nisi naturam spectaculum sibi paria componentem?]

1635 G. Hakewill Apol. (rev. ed.) iii. ii. 230 Cockles, periwinkles and oysters of solid stone:..whither they have bin shellfish and living creatures, or else the sports of nature in her works.

1668 N. Culpeper & A. Cole tr. T. Bartholin Anat. (new ed.) i. xxvii. 64 Spigelius, because he could not somtimes find it, did count it a sport of Nature.

1759 A. Butler Lives Saints IV. 134 They seem either petrifactions or sports of nature in uncommon chrystallizations in a mineral soil.

1773 J. Langhorne Fables of Flora (ed. 5) ix. 9 Thus Nature with the fabled elves We rank, and these her Sports we call.]

1822 J. M. Good Study Med. IV. 249 It is in this organ more especially that rudimental attempts at fetal organization, the mere sports of nature, are frequently found produced without impregnation.

1862 R. W. Thomson Amateur's Rosarium xiii. 92 Another variety of the Moss [rose], which owes its origin to a sport of nature.

1889 Mind 14 427 The possibility of thus pronouncing, that ‘white-skinned descendants of black men’ are a mere sport of nature.

1902 Geogr. Jrnl. 20 448 The Sarasins, discrediting the idea that the form of these islands can be accidental or a mere sport of nature, suggest a mechanical explanation.

1944 Times 28 Apr. 6/4 Delius... Beecham himself regards him as an unaccountable sport of nature.

2000 Guardian 29 Apr. (Saturday section) 9/6 If heat and light could magic living flesh from nothing, then it could also act upon ‘lapidifying forces’ to conjure up stony little jests, sports of nature, testaments to God's mysterious ways.