The Natural History of Selborne

• 1791: May 11, 1791 – The down of willows floats in the air, conveying, & spreading about their seeds, & affording some birds a soft lining for their nests.
• 1788: May 11, 1788 – In some districts chafers swarm: I see none at Selborne.  Cotton blows from the willows, & fills the air: with this substance some birds line their nests.  Mr Burbey’s brown owl, which was a great washer, was drowned at last in a tub where there was too much water.
• 1785: May 11, 1785 – Severe drying exhausting drought.  Cloudless days.  The country all dust.  Timothy the tortoise weighs 6 ae 11 13/4 oz.  He spoils the lettuce under the fruit-wall: but will not touch the Dutch, while he can get at any coss.
• 1784: May 11, 1784 – Sowed sweet alyssum in basons on the borders.  Wheat improves very much: the women weed it.
• 1782: May 11, 1782 – Peach & Nect. bloom scarce over yet: no fruit seems to be set.  Vine-buds do not open at all.  One of my neighbours, an intelligent, & observing man informs me, that about ten minutes before 8 o’clock in the eveing he discovered a great cluster of house swallows, 30 at least he supposes, perching on a willow that hung over the verge of James Knight’s upper pond.  His attention was first drawn by the twittering of these birds, which sate motionless in a row on the bough, with their heads all one way, & by their weight pressing down the twig so that it nearly touched the water.  In this situation he watched them ’till he could see no longer.  Repeated accounts of this sort spring & fall induce us greatly to suspect that house swallows have some strong attachement to water independent of the matter of food; & that, if they do not retire into that element, they conceal themselves in the banks of pools & rivers during the uncomfortable months of winter.
  An uncommon, & I think a new little bird frequents my garden, which I have great readon to think is the Pettichaps.  It is common in some parts of the kingdom,  & I have received formerly several dead specimens from Gibraltar.  It much resembles the white throat, but has a more white, or rather silvery breast & belly; is restless & active like the willow-wrens, hopping from bough to bough, & examining every part for food. It also runs up the stems of the crown-imperials, & putting its head into the bells of those flowers, sips the liquor contained in the nectarium of each petal.  It sometimes feeds like the hedge-sparrow, hopping about on the grass-plots & mown walks.
• 1781: May 11, 1781 – Fern-owl chatters.  When this bird is heard, summer is usually established.
• 1780: May 11, 1780 – Tortoise moves about, but does not feed yet.
• 1774: May 11, 1774 – Pulled the first lettuces, brown Dutch, which had stood the winter under the fruit-wall: they begin to loave.
• 1772: May 11, 1772 – The sedge-bird sings: variety of notes, but it’s manner is hurrying.
• 1771: May 11, 1771 – Cherry-trees begin to blossom.  The sedge bird, Passer arundinaceus minor, of the Brit: zool sings about waters: variety of notes; but the manner is hurrying.

• 1793: May 10, 1793 – Missel thrushes do not destroy the fruit in gardens like the other species of turdi, but feed on the berries of missel toe; & in the spring on ivy berries which then begin to ripen.  In the summer, when their young become fledge, they leave neighbourhoods, & retire to sheep walks, & wild commons.
• 1792: May 10, 1792 – Peat cart begins.
• 1790: May 10, 1790 – The Bantam hen hatches seven chickens.  Young red-breasts.  Made some tarts with the stalks of the leaves of the garden, or Monks rhubarb.  Only three swifts; one was found dead in the church-yard.
• 1789: May 10, 1789 – Nep. Ben came.  The beeches on the hanger, now in full leaf, when shone down on by the sun about noon, exhibit the most lovely lights & shades, not to be expressed by the most masterly pencil.  The hops are infested by the Chrysomela oleracea, called by the country people the turnip-fly, or black dolphin, which eats holes in their leaves.  This species is– “saltatoria, femoribus posticis carssissimis”:– “chrysomelae saltatoria plantarum cotyledonibus, & benellis foliis infestae sunt.” Linn:
• 1787: May 10, 1787 – Farmer Spencer’s orchard in fine bloom.
• 1786: May 10, 1786 – The grass is long enough to wave before the wind.  Wheat turns some what yellow.
• 1784: May 10, 1784 – The blackbirds & thrushes are so reduced by the severe weather, that I have seen in my out-let only one of the former, & not one of the latter; not one missle-thrush.
• 1782: May 10, 1782 – 14 or 16 swifts.  The tortoise weighs 6 ae 11 oun. 2dr.  He weighed Spring 1781, 6:8:4 & May 1780, 6:4:0.
• 1781: May 10, 1781 – A small sort of caterpillar annoys the goose-berry trees.
• 1780: May 10, 1780 – Stormy all night.  Tortoise scarce moves during this wet time.  Tremella nostoc abound on the grass walks.
• 1777: May 10, 1777 – The scenes round the village are beautifully diversifyed by the bloom of the pear-trees, plums, & cherries.  A great flood on the Thames in consequence of the rain on friday night.
• 1776: May 10, 1776 – Apis longicornis.  This bee appears, but does not bore nests in the ground yet.
• 1772: May 10, 1772 – Drought has lasted three weeks this day.
• 1771: May 10, 1771 – Fly-catcher.  This bird is usually the last of the summer birds of passage.

Magpie by T. Bewick

• 1793: May 9, 1793 – The mag-pies, which probably have young, are now very ravenous, & destroy the broods of Missel-thrushes, tho’ the dams are fierce birds, & fight boldly in defence of their nests.  It is probably to avoid such insults, that this species of thrush, tho’ wild at other times, delights to build near houses, & in frequented walks, & gardens.
• 1792: May 9, 1792 – Still for the first time since May 1st.  Chalk cart.
• 1790: May 9, 1790 – Master Trimming is taken with the smallpox.  Timothy the tortoise eats dandelion leaves & stalks: he swallows his food almost whole.
• 1786: May 9, 1786 – Timothy, contrary to his usual practice, lies out all day in the rain.
• 1785: May 9, 1785 – The grass in my Brother’s fields burns, & does not look so well as it did when I came.
• 1775: May 9, 1775 – The long rows of tulips make a gallant shew.
• 1774: May 9, 1774 – Chafers have not been plenty since the year 1770.  Eights swifts now appear they arrive in pairs.  Martins encrease.  Hanger almost in full leaf.  Chafers in vast numbers. Regulus non cristatus major,  shaking it’s wings it makes at intervals a sibilous stammering noise on the tops of the tallest beechen-woods: it abounds in the beechen-woods on the Sussex down where the two other species are never heard.  It spends it’s time on the tops of the tallest trees.  The caprimulgus is the last bird of passage but one: the stoparola is the last.  The house-martin begin to build as early, as when it arrives early.  It came very late.
• 1771: May 9, 1771 – Summer-like weather.  Some beeches begin to leaf.
• 1770: May 9, 1770 – Nightingales in my outlet.  A brace of green sandpipers at James Knight’s ponds.  Tringa Aldrov: tringa ochropus Lin:
• 1769: May 9, 1769 – Green geese are driven along the streets in great droves.

Notes:
Tringa ochropus, the green sandpiper. The notation “Linn:” in entries refers to Linnaeus’ classifications– availble online from the Natural History Museum. “Chafer” or Maybug, a pest that will loom throughout this month’s entries. Regulus non cristatus major– the willow wren.

• 1792: May 8, 1792 – On this day 26 houses, besides a number of barns, stables, granaries, &c. were burnt down at Barton-Stacey near Winchester.  Only ten or twelve houses were preseved, among which is the parsonage, a large farm house, & some others out of the line of the street.  The people of Selborne subscribed 6 ae. 1 s. 0 d. on this occasion: the county collection was very large & ample.
• 1790: May 8, 1790 – Began to mow the orchard for the horses.
• 1789: May 8, 1789 – Cut the first mesh of asparagus.  The bloom of plums is very great.  Peat-carting begins.
• 1786: May 8, 1786 – Plolyanths make a fine show.  Pastures yellow with bloom of dandelion, & with cowslips.
• 1785: May 8, 1785 – There is a great want of rain in France as well as in England.  A cuckow haunts my brother’s fields; so that probably there will be a young cuckow hatched in the quickset-hedge.  Millions of empedes, or tipulae, come forth at the close of day, & swarm to such a degree as to fill the air.  At this juncture they sport & copulate: as it grows more dark they retire.  All day they hide in hedges.  As they rise in a cloud they appear like smoke: I do not remember to have seen such swarms except in the fens of the Island of Ely.  They appear most over grass-mounds.
• 1784: May 8, 1784 – Auricula’s blow finely in the natural ground.  Owls have eggs.  The hanger almost all green.  Many trees in the Lythe in full leaf.  Beeches on the common hardly budding.
• 1783: May 8, 1783 – Apple-trees in high bloom; in danger from the frost.
• 1781: May 8, 1781 – Timothy lies close this cold weather.
• 1780: May 8, 1780 – The Lathraea squammaria grows also on the bank of Trimming’s orchard, just above the dry wall, opposite Grange-yard.
• 1779: May 8, 1779 – A good crop of rye-grass in the field sown last year; but the white clover takes only in patches.  Sowed 4 pounds more of white clover, & a willow basket of hay-seeds. [Later note] The white clover since is spread all over the field.
• 1778: May 8, 1778 – Sowed the Ewel-close, now barley, with 12 pounds of white clover, two bushels of Rye-grass, & a quarter of meadow-grass seeds from a farmer’s hay-loft.  The ground is too wet, & will not harrow well.  Strong wheat-land.
• 1774: May 8, 1774 – White-throat warbles softly.  Mistake: it was the black-cap: whitethroats are always harsh & unmusical.
• 1772: May 8, 1772 – Fields & gardens suffer by the severe harsh winds.  Farmers in stiff ground can sow no barley: not one grain is yet sown on Newton great farm.
• 1771: May 8, 1771 – Asparagus begins to sprout.
• 1769: May 8, 1769 – Green goose-berries.  Lapwing’s eggs at the poulterers.

• 1791: May 7, 1791 – Vast bloom on my nonpareils.  The orchard is mown for the horses.  Cut the stalks of garden rhubarb to make tarts: the plants are very strong.
• 1787: May 7, 1787 – The large white pippin-tree full of bloom.  No house-martin seen yet!
• 1785: May 7, 1785 – Pastures yellow with dandelions.  Meadow-foxtail grass, alopercurus pratensis, in bloom.
• 1781: May 7, 1781 – Vast bloom among the apples; the crop but small.  No rain to measure since April 12.
• 1780: May 7, 1780 – Wild cherries in bloom make a fine show in my hedges.
• 1772: May 7, 1772 – No dews: so that the grass-walks get rough for want of mowing.  Gardens suffer from want of rain.
• 1771: May 7, 1771 – Grass & corn grow very fast.
• 1770: May 7, 1770 – Grass-hopper lark.
• 1769: May 7, 1769 – Caprimulgus!

• 1792: May 6, 1792 – During the severe winds it is not easy to say how the Hirundines subsist; for they withdraw themselves, & are hardly ever seen, nor do any insects appear for their support. That they can retire to rest, & sleep away these uncomfortable periods, as the bats do, is a matter to be suspected rather than proved: or do they not rather spend their time in deep & shelt’red vales near waters, where insects are more likely to be found? Certain it is, that hardly any individuals of this Genus have been seen for several days together.
• 1790: May 6, 1790 – Mrs Chandler brought to bed of a daughter at the parsonage-house.
• 1788: May 6, 1788 – The wood-lark sings in the air at three in the morning: stone curlews pass over the village at that hour.
• 1787: May 6, 1787 – Timothy, the tortoise, who has just begun to eat, weighs 6 ae, 12 1/2 oz.  Agues are much about at Hawkley, & Emshot, & Newton; & in Selborne street.
• 1786: May 6, 1786 – Great showers, & hail all around.  Showers of hail at a distance look of a silvery colour.  Rain-bow.  The hanger is bursting into leaf every hour.  A progress in the foliage may be discerned every morning, & again every evening.
• 1784: May 6, 1784 – Pulled the first radishes.  Crown-imperials & fritillaria’s blown.  Shot two more green-finches.  There is a ring-dove’s nest in the American Juniper in the shrubbery: but as that spot begins to be much frequented, the brood will scarcely come to good.
• 1783: May 6, 1783 – Some ponds, & ditches dry, & cleansed out.
• 1780: May 6, 1780 – Made an hot-bed for the hand-glasses. I opened a hen swift, which a cat had caught, & found she was in high condition, very plump & fat: in her body were the rudiments of several eggs, two of which were larger than the rest, & would probably have been produced this season. Cats often catch swifts as they stoop to go under the eaves of houses.
  The quantity of rain that feel at Selborne between May 1st 1779, & May 1st 1780.

  —
  inch:
  hund:

  In May 1779 . . . .
  2:
  71

  June . . . .
  2:
  0

  July . . . .
  5:
  35

  August . . . .
  2:
  12

  September . . . .
  3:
  22

  October . . . .
  4:
  3

  November . . . .
  2:
  66

  December . . . .
  6:
  28

  January 1780 . . . .
  1:
  80

  February . . . .
  1:
  3

  March . . . .
  1:
  92

  April . . . .
  3:
  57

  . . . .
  36:
  69

• 1774: May 6, 1774 – The redstart whistles perching on the tops of tall trees near houses.  Few swifts yet.  In Devon near Exeter Swallows did not arrive ’til April 25; & house martins not ’til the middle of May.  Swifts were seen in plenty on May 1st.  At Blackburn in Lancashire swifts were seen April 28: Swallows April 29.  House-martins May 1st.  In some former years, I see, house-martins have not appeared ’til the beginning of May the case was the same this Year & yet they afterwards abounded.  These long delays are more in favour of migration than of a torpid state.  House-martins afterwards were very plenty.
• 1772: May 6, 1772 – Dark, sun hot & harsh air.  Rumbling wind.

Fernowl or Nightjar, Caprimulgus europaeus.

• 1793: May 5, 1793 – Damson, sloe-trees, & wild Merise blow.  Cock Red start.  There has been so little frost, that the Antirrhinum Cymb. flourished & blossomed the whole winter thro’, & is now very thriving, tho’ it usually dies about Xmass.  So that, in mild times, it is at least a biennial with us, & may be perhaps of longer duration in milder regions.  James Knight has observed two large fieldfares in the high wood lately, haunting the same part, as if they intended to breed there  They are not wild.  A nest of this sort of bird would be a great curiosity.
• 1791: May 5, 1791 – The bloom on my white apple is again very great.  Set the middle Bantam hen with eleven eggs: the cook desired that there might be an odd one.
• 1789: May 5, 1789 – The Fern-owl, or Goat-sucker chatters in the hanger  This curious bird is never heard till warm weather comes: it is the latest summer bird except the fly-catcher.
• 1788: May 5, 1788 – The great oak in the mead abounds with male bloom.
• 1787: May 5, 1787 – Sowed ten weeks stocks, & radishes, & lettuces.
• 1784: May 5, 1784 – Cut the first cucumber, a large one.  Golden weather.  The polyanths blow finely, especially the young seedlings from Bramshot-place, may of which will be curious.  Shot three green-finches, which pull-off the blossoms of the polyanths.
• 1781: May 5, 1781 – No rain enough to measure.
• 1779: May 5, 1779 – The swifts which dashed-by on saturday last have not appeared since; & were therefore probably on their passage.
• 1776: May 5, 1776 – Showers all day, with hail, & wind.  The ground is pretty well moistened.
• 1775: May 5, 1775 – House-snails abound now: scarce any have appeared before on account of the long drought.
• 1774: May 5, 1774 – Grass grows, & is forward.  Apple-trees blow.  Plums shew little bloom.
• 1770: May 5, 1770 – Clouds, great rain.
• 1768: May 5, 1768 – Green gooseberries.

Notes:

The Fern-owl, or Goat-sucker, or Eve-jar, or Night-jar, or Caprimulgus is a nocturnal bird something between an owl and a swallow. North Americans from quiet rural areas may know its close relative the whip-poor-will. The UK Forestry Commission has a handy list of places to go to spot, or at least hear this rare bird. Song of the nightjar from the wonderful Kalerne.

• 1793: May 4, 1793 – Some beeches begin to show leaves.  Sowed some fine Savoy seed from Newton.  Hen red-start appears.
• 1792: May 4, 1792 – Began to use the lettuces under the fruit wall.
• 1791: May 4, 1791 – Planted some tricolor violets, & some red cabbages sent from South Lambeth.
• 1789: May 4, 1789 – Beat the grass-banks in the garden.  Put up the urns.  Martins come into old nests.  Bat out.  Nightingale in my out-let.  Snails come out.
• 1788: May 4, 1788 – Shade the best tulips from the vehemence of the sun.  Polyanths are hurried out of bloom.  Vine-shoots are forward.  Sowed the great annual-frame with flower-seeds: sowed two hand-glasses with cucumbers, green & white.  Timothy wanders round the garden, & strives to get out: he is shut-up in the brew-house to prevent an escape.
• 1787: May 4, 1787 – Sowed a plot of red beet.
• 1786: May 4, 1786 – Cut two fine cucumbers; & began to eat the brown lettuces under the fruit-wall, where they stood the winter.  Lettuce well-loaved, & very fine.
• 1782: May 4, 1782 – Vegetation is at a stand, & Timothy the tortoise fast asleep.  The trees are still naked.
• 1778: May 4, 1778 – The king & queen are this day at Portsmouth to see the fleet at Spithead.  There were five general running firings, which shook my house & made the windows jar.  The firings were at ten, twelve, on, four.
• 1776: May 4, 1776 – Field crickets shrill.  Snipes in the forest.  The forest quite burnt-up.  Small reed-sparrow sings.  Young ring-doves fledge.  Hay is risen to four pounds per ton: no grass in the fields, & great distress among the cattle.
• 1774: May 4, 1774 – Asparagus in plenty.  Orchard-grass cut for the horses.
• 1772: May 4, 1772 – Ground very hard & cloddy; & wants rain before it can be sown.
• 1771: May 4, 1771 – Showers, spring weather.  Cucumbers swell away, & set apace.  Black-caps appear & begin to sing.  Sowed white dwarf kidney beans.
• 1770: May 4, 1770 – Nightingales abound.
• 1769: May 4, 1769 – Crayfish in high season.  Smelts in season.

• 1793: May 3, 1793 – Timothy eats.  A pair of Missel-thrushes have made a nest in the apple-tree near the fruit-wall.  One young half-fledged was found in the garden.
• 1791: May 3, 1791 – Dark & harsh.
• 1788: May 3, 1788 – Men cart peat & chalk.  The deepest roads are quite dry.
• 1786: May 13, 1786 – Made the annual-bed for a large three-light frame with 3 loads of dung.
• 1785: May 3, 1785 – Blanchard & Miss Simonet ascended.
• 1784: May 3, 1784 – Earthed the annual beds.  Set up a copper-vane (arrow) on the brew-house.  Goody Hampton came to work in the garden for the summer.  Timothy the tortoise weighs 6ae 13 oun.; he weighed at first coming out last year only 6ae 11 1/4 oun.  He ate this morning the heart of a lettuce.
• 1783: May 3, 1783 – Honey-suckles against the walls begin to blow.  Early tulips blown-out: late begin to turn colour.
• 1779: May 3, 1779 – Shower of snow.  The snow lay but a small time.  Began to turn my horses into my field lain down last year with rye-grass & dutch-clover.  Wheat looks wretchedly.
• 1775: May 3, 1775 – One swift at Bramshot; one at Selborne.  At Blackburn in Lancashire swallows first seen April 15; swifts April 28; house-martins May 4th.  Cuckow sings April 28; laughing wren sings Apr. 17.  Several ponds are dry.
• 1774: May 3, 1774 – White-throat returns & whistles.
• 1772: May 3, 1772 – Regulus non crist: major: Shaking its wings it makes at intervals a sibilous noise on the tops of the tallest beeches.
• 1771: May 3, 1771 – The turtle-dove returns & cooes.  Sowed white cucumbers under a hand-glass.
• 1769: May 3, 1769 – Mackrels cryed in the streets.  Asparagus falls to 4s per hundred.  Apricots, small green.

• 1793: May 2, 1793 – Sad, blowing, wintry weather.  I think I saw an house martin.  There is a bird of the black-bird kind, with white on the breast, that haunts my outlet as if it had a nest there.  Is this a ring-ouzel?  If it is, it must be a great curiosity; because they have not been known to breed in these parts.
• 1792: May 2, 1792 – Cut the leaves of Rhubarb for tarts: the tarts are very good.  Sent some of the leaves of the crocus’s to Edmd White: they make good tyings for hops, being tough, & pliant.
• 1791: May 2, 1791 – Swifts, & house-martins over the Thames at Pangbourne.
• 1789: May 2, 1789 – The long frost of last winter has proved very destructive to pond-fish the kingdom over, except in those pools & lakes thro’ which passed a constant current of water: nor did the expedient of breaking holes in the ice avail.  Mr Barker, who has been writing an account of the late frost, thinks that it did mischief.  A current of water introduces a constant current of fresh air, which refreshes continually the air of the pools & ponds, & renders it fit for respiration.
• 1787: May 2, 1787 – The foliage of the peach, & nectarine-trees scorched by the winds: the leaves are shrivelled, & blotched.
• 1786: May 2, 1786 – White frost, sun, cold air.
• 1784: May 2, 1784 – No ring-ouzels this spring: the severity of the season probably disconcerted their proceedings.
• 1782: May 2, 1782 – Two swifts at Nore hill passed by me at a steady rate towards this village as if they were just arrived.
• 1781: May 2, 1781 – Field-crickets crink: this note is very summer-like, & chearful.
• 1780: May 2, 1780 – Tortoise marches about: eats part of a piece of cucumber-paring.
• 1776: May 2, 1776 – Some missle-thrushes on the down above us: blackbirds and thrushes mostly destroyed.
• 1774: May 2, 1774 – There is a good bloom on the pear-trees.  Great bloom of cherries.
• 1772: May 2, 1772 – Sand-martins abound at the sand-pit at short heath.
• 1770: May 2, 1770 – Cuculus.  Swallows abound.  Great snowstorms.
• 1769: May 2, 1769 – Cabbages begin to turn in.  Prawns plenty.

The songbirds ‘mostly destroyed’ in the 1776 entry by the long drought.
‘Cuculus’– cuckoo.
The 1782 entry is remarkable for a rare instance of White seeming to be able to envisage migration for swifts.
Surely it’s the rhubarb stalks in the 1792 tarts?