The Natural History of Selborne

Saw yesterday a considerable flock of gulls flying over the hanger to the S.W.  Gulls very seldom appear in this district; except sometimes on the forest ponds.  * When horses, cows, sheep, deer, &c. feed in the wind, & rain, they always keep their heads down the wind, & their tails to the weather; but birds always perch, & chuse to fly, with their heads to the weather to prevent the winds from ruffling their feathers, & the cold & wet from penetrating their skins.

Charadrius pluvialis.  Green whistling plovers appear: they come in the autumn to us, but do not breed here.  They haunt the downs.

Grapes are delicate still; especially those that are not bagged in crape those that are, are shrivelled, & vapid.  *The great month for spring migration is April: tho’ the wryneck, one species of willow-wren, & the upland curlew are seen in March: in this month also the winter birds retire.  In Sept. most of the short-winged summer birds withdraw; & in Oct the wood-cock, redwing, & fieldfare return.  The hirundines are more irregular in their retreat; for the Swift disappears in the beginning of August: the rest of the Genus not ’til Oct.:  In Nov the wood-pigeons, & wild fowls return.  We have found in the parish of Selborne alone about 120 species of birds, which are more than half the number that belong to Great Britain in general; & more than half as many as Linnaeus can produce in the kingdom of Sweden.  Mr Pennant enumerates 227 species in Gr. Britain, & Linnaeus about 221 in his native country.

Leaves fall very fast.  The hangers begin to lose their picturesque beauties.

Flocks of large fieldfares.  Celeri finely blanched.

Redwings on the hawthorns.  Bat appears.

The arbutus casts it’s blossoms & discloses the rudiments of its fruit.  In thses two instances fructifcation goes on the winter through.  Three martins in the street.  Gossamer on every bent.  *Bynstede, the name of a parish near us, signifies locus cultus, vel habitatus.  This barish abuts on a wild woodland district, which is a royal forest, & is called the Holt.  This parish was probably cultivated when all around were nothing but woodlands, & forests.

My autumn crop of spinage this year runs much to seed.

The storm on thursday night tore all the remaining flowers to pieces.  *With us the country people call coppices, or brush-wood, ris, or rice: now hris in Saxon signifies frondes, & is no doubt whence our provincial term originates.  Hraed hriz is frondes celeres: hence probably Red Rice, the name of a hunting-seat standing in the midst of a coppice at Andover.

One swallow near Wallingford.  strong wind.  Acorns abound: the hogs in the lanes & woods seem to be half fat.