The Natural History of Selborne

Simeon Etty brought me two eggs of a Razor-bill from the cliffs of the Isle of Wight: they are large, & long, & very blunt at the big end, & very sharp & peaked at the small.  The eggs of these birds are, as Ray justly remarks, “in omnibus hujus beneris majora quam pro corporis mole.”  One of these eggs is of a pale green, the other more white; both are marked & dotted irregularly with chcolate-coloured spots.  Razor-bills lay but one egg, except the first is taken away, & then a second, & on to a third.  By their weight these eggs seem to have been sat on, & to contain young ones.

Wind all night.  At Selborne, a storm at 11 A:M:  Sea-gulls abound on the Alresford-stream: they frequent those waters for many months in the year.

Five great white sea-gulls flew over the village toward the forest.

Sea-gulls, winter-mews, haunt the fallows.  Beetles flie.

A man brought me a common sea-gull alive: three crows had got it down in a field, & were endeavouring to demolish it.

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.

Wheat harvest general.  Large sea-gulls.