July 25, 1774
Posted by sydney on Jul 25th, 1774
Grapes very small & backward for want of sun. qu: if they will ripen.
*They did in Octr.
July 24, 1774
Posted by sydney on Jul 24th, 1774
Young swallows & martins begin to congregate on roofs. These are the first flight.
July 22, 1774
Posted by sydney on Jul 22nd, 1774
Hay well made at last. Swifts pursue & drive away an hawk: but do not dart down & strike him with that fury that swallows express on the same occasion. In these attacks they make some noise with their mouths, squeaking a little.
July 19, 1774
Posted by sydney on Jul 19th, 1774
Put part of my meadow-hay in large cock.
July 16, 1774
Posted by sydney on Jul 16th, 1774
Swallows strike at owls, & magpies. Cut part of my great mead: grass over-ripe.
July 15, 1774
Posted by sydney on Jul 15th, 1774
No young martins out yet. Creeping white mist.
July 14, 1774
Posted by sydney on Jul 14th, 1774
Swifts, at least 30: at times they seem to come from other villages.
July 13, 1774
Posted by sydney on Jul 13th, 1774
Martins hover at the mouth of their nests, & feed their young without settling.
July 12, 1774
Posted by sydney on Jul 12th, 1774
Martins build nests & forsake them, & now build again. Much hay spoiled: much not cut.
July 9, 1774
Posted by sydney on Jul 9th, 1774
Young swifts helpless squabs still. Young martins not out.
* I procured a bricklayer to open the tiles in several places of my Bro.s brewhouse in order to examine the state of swift’s nests at that season, & the number of their young. This enquiry confirmed my suspicions that they never lay more than two eggs at a time: for in several nests which we discovered, there were only two squab young apiece. As swifts breed but once in a summer, & the other hirundines twice: the latter, who lay from four to six eggs, encrease five times as fast as the former: & therefore it is not to be wondered that swifts are very numerous.
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