The Natural History of Selborne

Planted a line of kidney-beans

Preserved some Duke cherries, very fine fruit.  The pupils of the eyes of animals are diversifyed: in all the birds & fishes I have seen they are round, as in men: but those of horses, & cows, & sheep & goats & I think deer & camels, are oblong from corner to corner of the eye.  The pupils of the domestic cat differ from those of all other quadrupeds; for they are long & narrow, yet capable of great dilation, & standing near at right angles with the opening of the eye-lids.  The eys of wasps are said to be lunated in the shape of a crescent.

Flowers hurried, & injured by the heat.  Curious pinks.

Timothy Turner cuts Baker’s hill, the 20th crop: over ripe.

Gracious street pond dry, & cleaned out.  Much water in the pond on the hill.  The pond at Faringdon dry.

A brood of little partridges was seen in Baker’s hill among the Sainfoin.

Nep. and niece Ben White brought little Ben.

Brood of nightingales frequents the walks. The number of swifts are few, because they are stopped-out from the eaves of the church, which were repaired last autumn. The nest of a
Flusher, or red-backed Butcher-bird was found near Alton. Pease, barley, & oats look well, especially the first, which show fine bloom: wheat looks but poorly. What at market rises. Sheep are washed.

Netted the wall-cherries.  Boys bring wood-strawberries;  not ripe.

A pair of fly-catchers build in my vines.  The late frost did much damage at Fyfield, but little or none at Selborne.  My potatoes, kidney-beans, & nasturtiums were not injured: some balsoms, that touched the glasses, were scorched.