The Natural History of Selborne

A fly-catcher has built a nest in the great apricot-tree, in which there is one egg.

Dr Chandler by letter dated Rolle en Suisse April 4th 1789.  “The Swallows disappeared here about the end of September, 178, the weather being cold: but Oct 17th I saw a pair as we passed among the mountains towards Fort le Cluse on the road to Lyons; & my servant saw a pair on the 19th when we had got thro’ the mountains into Bresse.  Passing an islet of the Rhone Octr 23 near Pont St Esprit, again I saw a swallow, which dipped to drink.  As we approached nearer Marseilles, we saw wasps, dragon-flies, butter-flies, & other summer-insects.  I was ashore Novr 10 at Porto Longona, in the isle of Sr Elbe, off the coast of Italy, towards the evening.  Philip declared that a swallow had passed over his head, of which I doubted; but presently after saw three crossing the Port towards us.  They flew almost straight, very swiftly; & I should have supposed were going to Italy, if the distance had been less, or the Sun not so near setting.  Wasps were in full vigour, & numerous there.  I was assured by a friend at Rome, March 16, 1788, that he had seen swallows at Naples six weeks before.  Mr Morris informed me that martins had been busy under the eaves of the house, where he lodged, about a week.  I saw there, two days after, four nests which they had begun to repair, & on the 26th a couple of the birds: but Mr. M. declared that he had heard them twitter at least as early as the first of March.  The first swift I observed was over the river Liris on my return from Naples April 27th: Nightingales sung there.  On the 20th of last March Philip saw two martins about the lake of Geneva; & was assured by a man that he had seen them on the 18th.  On the 25th he saw several swallows; & supposes the martins to have perished with the cold, as they have not been seen since, & the weather has been bad.  They seem to have disappeared again, as I have not yet seen one.   I remarked bees, & a brimstone-butterfly, march 5th; & about the same time magpies building in the trees opposite to my windows.  I was told that a single martin commonly arrives first, as it were to explore; & again withdraws, as it were to fetch a colony.  Mr Morris, who has lived several years at Rome, related, that the boys there angle for the Swallows with a line at the end of a reed, & instead of a hook, a noose baited with a feather, & hung out at the corners of the streets.  Many are taken by this method, & carried home to be roasted & eaten; or to supply the markets, where they are commonly sold in season.  At Chamberry in Savoy I observed in the evening a joyous croud, & a great bustle.  My curiosity led me to see what was the matter.  A net was spread from one house to an other a cross a street.  These brutes tied the birds they intercepted (chiefly swifts) in pairs by two of their legs, & dismissed them from the windows to flutter down, & become the sport of the mob below.  I turned away with horror, & disgust.  The first quail that I have heard this year 1787 was near Rolle, on May 20th in the evening.”

White thorn blows.  The air is filled with floating willow-down.  Martins begin to build against the end of my brew-house.  Columbines blow.  N. Aurora.  Timothy the tortoise begins to travel about, & be restless.

Hirundines keep out in the rain: when the rain is considerable.  Swifts skim with their wings inclining, to shoot off the wet.

Martins build briskly at the Priory, & in the street.  Oaks show prodigious bloom.

Stellaria holostea greater stichwort, blows: a regular, periodical plant.

Very blowing all day.

The mice have infested my garden much by nestling in my hot-beds, devouring my balsoms, & burroughing under my cucumber-basons: so that I may say with Martial…. “Fines Mus populatoru, & colono /Tanquam Sus Calydonius temetur.”  Epigramm: XIX. lib. XI.

Caught a mouse in the hot-bed: cut several cucumbers, but they are ill-shapen.

Nep Ben & wife left us.  Great tempest at Winchester.