April 18

Posted by sydney on Apr 18th, 2009

Nightingale song

Listen to a nightingale recording at the Freesound Project.

  • 1791: April 18, 1791 – Mr Ben White came from London.
  • 1790: April 18, 1790 – A boy has taken three little young Squirrels in their nest, or drey, as it is called in these parts.  These small creatures he put under the care of a cat who had lately lost her kittens, & finds that she nurses & suckles them with the same assiduity & affection, as if they were her own offspring.  This circumstance corroborates my suspicion, that the mention of deserted & exposed children being nurtured by female beasts of prey who had lost their young, may not be so improbable an incident as many have supposed: — & therefore may be a justification of those authors who have gravely mentioned what some have deemed to be a wild & improbable story.  So many people went to see the little squirrels suckled by a cat, that the foster mother became jealous of her charge, & in pain for their safety; & therefore hid them over the ceiling, where one died.  This circumstance shews her affection for these foundling, & that she supposes the squirrels to be her own young.  The hens, when they have hatched ducklings, are equally attached to them as if they were their own chickens.  For a leveret nursed by a cat see my Nat: History, p. 214.  I have said “that it is not one whit more marvellous that Romulus, & Remus, in their infant & exposed state, should be nursed by a she wolf, than that a poor little suckling leveret should be fostered & cherished by a bloody grimalkin.”
  • 1787: April 18, 1787 – Cut a brace of fine cucumbers.
  • 1786: April 18, 1786 – Men sow clover in their wheat.
  • 1785: April 18, 1785 – The large shivering willow-wren.  The Cuckow is heard this day.
  • 1783: April 18, 1783 – A nightingale sings in my fields.
  • 1781: April 18, 1781 – Some bank-martins at Wallingford-bridge.
  • 1779: April 18, 1779 – Some young grass-hoppers appear: they are very minute.
  • 1777: April 18, 1777 – The golden-crested wren frequents the fir-trees, & probably builds in them.  Tho’ the spring has been remakably harsh & drying, yet the ground crumbles, & dresses very well for the spring-crops. The reason is, the driness of the winter: since the ground bakes hardest after it has been most drenched with water.
  • 1776: April 18, 1776 – Mowed all round the garden.  Cut the first brace of cucumbers: they were well-grown.  Nightingale sings.
  • 1775: April 18, 1775 – Luscinia.  Cuculus.  Inyx.
  • 1773: April 18, 1773 – Ground very wet.  Nightingale sings.
  • 1772: April 18, 1772 – Snow covers the ground.
  • 1771: April 18, 1771 – Luscinia.  Cut the first cucumber; not a very fair fruit.  Swallow.  Colds & coughs universal.
  • 1769: April 18, 1769 – Oedicnemus sings late at night.
  • 1768: April 18, 1768 – Nuthatch, sitta, makes its jarring, clattering noise in the trees.

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