The Natural History of Selborne

Wood-lark sings.

The oestrus curvicauda is found in Lancashire: probably the kingdom over.  It lays it’s nits on horses legs, flanks, &c. each one on a single hair.  The maggots when hatched do not enter the horses skins, but fall to the ground.  On what & how are they supported?  * Earthworms obtain & encrease in the grass-walks, where in levelling they were dug down more than 18 inches.   So that they were either left in the soil, deep as it was removed: or else the eggs or young remained in the turf.  Worms seem to eat the earth;   also brick-dust lying among the earth, as appears by their casts.   They delight in slopes, probably to avoid being flooded, & perhaps supply slopes with mould, as it is washed away by rains.  They draw straws, stalks of vine-leaves, &c. into their holes, no doubt for the purpose of food.  Without worms perhaps vegetation would go on but lamely, since they perforate, loosen, & meliorate the soil, rendering it pervious to rains, the fibres of plants, & c.  Worms come out all the winter in mild seasons.

Swallows hawking about very briskly in all the moderate rain. Martins about.

A moor-buzzard with a white head was shot some time ago on Greatham-moor.

Much barley & oats is housed, but in poor condition.  Peaches & nect: good, but much eaten by wasps, & honey-bees.  Bees are hungry some autumns, & devour the wall-fruit.

Ring-ouzels appear on their autumnal migration.  Were seen first last year on the 30th: the year before on the 11th.

Ring-ouzels feed on our haws, & yew-berries in the autumn, & ivy-berries in the spring.

Great hail at Winton.  Wasps abound in woody, wild districts far from neighbourhoods: how are they supported there without orchards, or butcher’s shambles, or grocer’s shops?  * Wasps nesting far from neighbourhoods feed on flowers, & catch flies & caterpillars to carry to their young.  Wasps make their nests with the raspings of sound timber, hornets with what they gnaw from decayed.  These particles of wood are neaded up with a mixture of saliva from their bodies, & moulded into combs.

Martins do not seem to engage much this year in second broods.  Are they discouraged by the cold, wet, season?

Oats housed all day.  Swifts retire usually between the 10th & the 20th of Aug: flycatchers, stoparolae, which are the latest summer birds of passage, not appearing ’til the 20 of May, withdraw about the 6th of September.