The Natural History of Selborne

Planted 30 cauliflowers brought from Mareland; & a row of red cabbages.  The ground is so glutted with rain that men can neither plow, nor sow, nor dig.

The white apple-tree shows again, as usual, much bloom.

A man brought me a large trout weighing three pounds, which he found in the waste current at the tail of Bins pond, in water so shallow that it could not get back again to the Selborne stream. Made rhubarb tarts, & a rhubarb pudding, which was very good.

Set the second Bantam hen over the saddle cup-board in the stable with eleven dark eggs.

Sowed-in the three-light annual frame African & French marigolds, China asters, pendulous Amaranths, Orange-gourds.  Took the blackbird’s nest the second time; it had squab young.

Timothy travels about the garden.

Two nightingales sing in my outlet.  Foliage of trees expands very fast.  Peat begins to be brought in: it is in good condition.  H. martins build.  The old Bantam hen began to sit in the barn on eleven eggs.  The fern-owl, or churn-owl returns, & chatters in the hanger.

The merise, or wild cherry in beautiful bloom.

Missel thrushes do not destroy the fruit in gardens like the other species of turdi, but feed on the berries of missel toe; & in the spring on ivy berries which then begin to ripen.  In the summer, when their young become fledge, they leave neighbourhoods, & retire to sheep walks, & wild commons.

The mag-pies, which probably have young, are now very ravenous, & destroy the broods of Missel-thrushes, tho’ the dams are fierce birds, & fight boldly in defence of their nests.  It is probably to avoid such insults, that this species of thrush, tho’ wild at other times, delights to build near houses, & in frequented walks, & gardens.