The Natural History of Selborne

Timothy the tortoise, who weighed April 2: after fasting all the winter on six pounds 8 oun. & 3/4: weighs now seven pounds, & one ounce: weighed last august six pounds, & fifteen ounces. From the encreased number of the Swifts, it seems as if they had brought out many of their young. About eight in the evening, Swifts get together in a large party, & course round the environs of the church, as if teaching their broods the art of flying. As yet they do not retire ’til three quarters after 8 o’ the clock; & before they withdraw, the bats come forth: so that day & night animals take each others places in a curious succession! All the swifts that play around the church do not seem to roost under it’s eaves. Some pairs, I know, reside under some of the cottage roofs. Three or four pairs of lapwings hatched their broods this summer on the common: the young, which run long before they can flie, sculk among the fern. The usually affect low, moist situations.