The Natural History of Selborne

Grasshopper lark in my outlet.

A pair of swifts frequent the eaves of my stable.  The birds soon forsook the place, & did not build.

Field-crickets cry, & shrill in the short Lythe.

Columbine & monkshoods blow.  The sycomores, & maples in bloom scent the air with a honeyed smell.  Lily of the valley blows.  Lapwings on the down.

Men bring up peat from the forest.

Flowers fade, & go-off very fast thro’ heat.  There has been only one moderate shower all this month.  Bees thrive.  Asparagus abounds.

Sultry.  Left off fires in the parlor.  So much sun hurries the flowers out of bloom.  Flesh-files begin to appear.

The tortoise is very earnest for the leaves of poppies, which he hunts about after, & seems to prefer to any other green thing.  Such is the vicissitude of matters where weather is concerned, that the spring, which last year was unusually backward, is now forward.

Swallows build.  They take up straws in their bills, & with them a mouthful of dirt.  Fern-owl churs.  The bark of felled oaks runs remarkably well; so that the barkers earn great wages.

Cut the first bundle of asparagus.