Birds silent for want of showers. Acer majus in bloom. The sycamore, when in bloom, affords great pabulum for the bees, & sends forth an honey-like smell. All the maples have sccharine juices.
Pheasants crow. Ring-doves coe. Nect: & peaches swell. Hops are poling. The latest summer birds of passage generally retire the first: this is the case with the hirundo apis, the caprimulgus, & the stoparola. Birds are never joyous in dry springs: showery seasons are their delight for obvious reasons.
The wolf-fly appears in windows, & pierces other flies with his rostrum: is of a yellow hue: an asilus of Linn.
Hot-beds never do so well in long dry fits of weather: they do not ferment enough. The hot dry weather hurries the flowers out of bloom.
Codlings blow. Hot-beds want rain to make them ferment.
Grass-hopper-lark whispers. The bombylius medius is much about in March & the beginning of April, & soon seems to retire. It is a very early insecte. Pulled won the old martins nests against the brew-house & stable: they get foul & full of vermin. These abounded with fleas, & the cases of Hippoboscae hirundinis. Besides while these birds are building they are much more in sight, & very amusing.
Mowed all round the garden. Cut the first brace of cucumbers: they were well-grown. Nightingale sings.
Rain is much wanted. At Fyfield; charadrius oedicnemus returns & clamors April 14; first swallow, April 16; nightingale April 16; cuckow Ap. 20; swifts first seen Apr: 26: came to their nesting-place May 8. At Lyndon, in Rutland first swallow Apr: 16; first swift May 6th.
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