The Natural History of Selborne

Peacocks begin to moult & cast their splendid train. Total eclipse of the moon.

Cut the grass in the little meadow.  Hay makes well.  Hops fill their poles, & throw-out lateral shoots.

Bees that have not swarmed kill their drones.

Walnuts abound, but are rather small & spotted.

Bees swarm the swarm of a swarm, which swarmed itself at the beginning of June.  A neighbour has had nine swarms from four stalls: two apiece from three of them, & three from one.

Missle thrushes bring forth their broods, & flock together.

Sambucus ebulus.  Dwarf elder blows. Fungi begin to appear.

Bees, when a shower approaches, hurry home.  One hive of bees does not swarm; the bees lie in clusters at the mouth of the hive.

Young frogs migrate, & spread around the ponds for more than a furlong: they march about all day long, separating in pursuit of food; & get to the top of the hill, & into the N. field.

Tilia europaea. The lime blows, smells very sweetly, & affords much pabulum for the bees.

* Bees come & suck the cherries where the birds have broke the skin; & on some autumns, I remember they attack’d & devoured the peaches & Nect. where the wasps had once made a beginning.