The Natural History of Selborne

• 1793: June 6, 1793 – Sowed two rows of large white kidney-beans: but the ground is so hard, that it required much labour to make it fit to receive the seed.  The old Bantam brought out only three chickens.
• 1792: June 6, 1792 – The mare lies out.  St foin begins to blow.
• 1791: June 6, 1791 – Wheat begins to come into ear: wheat, which was very yellow from the cold winds, by means of the heat has recovered it’s colour without the assistance of rain.  Dew, cloudless, sultry.  Red even, dead calm.  The lettuces, which stood under the fruit-wall thro’ the winter, are just over.  They have been of great service at the table now for many weeks.
• 1790: June 6, 1790 – After ewes & lambs are shorn there is great confusion & bleating, neither the dams nor the young being able to distinguish one another as before. This embarassment seems not so much to arise from the loss of the fleece, which may occasion an alteration in their appearance, as from the defect of that notus odor, discriminating each individual personally: which also is confounded by the strong scent of the pitch & tar wherewith they are newly marked; for the brute creation recognize each other more from the smell than the sight; & in matters of Identity & Diversity appeal much more to their noses than to their eyes. Thus dogs smell to persons when they meet, when they want to be informed whether they are stranger or not. After sheep have been washed, there is the same confusion, for the reason given above.
• 1789: June 6, 1789 – Aphides begin to appear on the hops: in some places they are called smother-flies.  Farmer Spencer’s Foredown hops are much injured, & are eaten by the chrysomelea: while Mr Hale’s adjoining are not much touched.
• 1788: June 6, 1788 – Scarlet strawberries at 2s. per pottle.  Red-backed butcher-bird, or Flusher, in Bro. Ben’s outlet.
• 1786: June 6, 1786 – Began to tack the vines; they are again infested with the cotton-like appearance which surrounds the eggs of the Coccus vitis viniferae…. for some account of this insect, see my Journal for summer last 1785.
• 1780: June 6, 1780 – Red valerian blows.  Terrible riots in London: & unpresidented burnings, & devastations by the mob.
• 1779: June 6, 1779 – Sparrows take possession of the martins nests.  When we shot the cock, the hen soon found another male; & when we killed the hen, the cock soon procured another mate; & so on for three or four times.
• 1778: June 6, 1778 – Snake gorges a toad much larger than itself.  When full it is very sluggish, & helpless, & easily taken.
• 1777: June 6, 1777 – Began to build the walls of my parlor, which is 23 feet & half by 18 feet; & 12 feet high & 3 inch.
• 1775: June 6, 1775 – Swifts abound: near 15 pairs: they seem to come from other villages.  H: martins now abound, & build briskly.
• 1774: June 6, 1774 – The redstart sits singing on the fane of the may-pole, & on the weather-cock of the tower.
• 1773: June 6, 1773 – Here & there a single chafer this year.
• 1772: June 6, 1772 – Showers, showers, clouds & wind.
• 1771: June 6, 1771 – Ephemera vulgata Meridie choreas aireas instituit, sursum recte tendens, rediensque eadem fere via: Scopoli.  A mole-cricket’s nest full of small eggs was discovered just under the turf in the garden near the pond.  They were of a dirty yellow colour, & of an oval shape, surrounded with a tough skin, & too small to have any rudiments of young withim them, being full of a viscous substance.  There might be an hundred eggs in this one nest; they lay very shallow just under a little fresh-moved mould in an hollow formed for that purpose.
• 1770: June 6, 1770 – Chafers abound. Sanicula europea in flower.

Notes:
Latin translation for 1771 entry courtesy of Tann: “The common May-fly begins its aërial dances at midday, rising up toward the right, and generally returning by the same way. —Scopoli”
Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (1723-1788) was an Austrian-Italian physician and naturalist.