The Natural History of Selborne

Rye in ear.  Green pease at supper, a large dish.  Young Cygnets on the Mole reiver at Cobham.  Hay made, & carrying at Wandsworth.  Roses, & sweet-briars beginning to blow in my brother’s outlet.

Field-crickets shrill on the verge of the forest.  Cockoos abound there. Thinned the apricots, & took off many hundreds.

The bloom of the hawthorns is vast: every bush appears as if covered in snow.  Brother Thomas left us, & went to Fyfield.

Aphides begin to appear on the hops: in some places they are called smother-flies.  Farmer Spencer’s Foredown hops are much injured, & are eaten by the chrysomelea: while Mr Hale’s adjoining are not much touched.

Sowed some white cucumber-seeds from S. Lambeth under an hand-glass.  Moon-shine.

Ophrys nidus-avis, and ophrys apifera blossom.

Wheat-ears begin to burst-out.  Boys bring hornets.  The planet Venus is just become an evening star:  but being now in the descending signs;  that is, the end of Virgo, where it now is, being a lower part of the Zodiac than the end of Leo, where the sun is;  Venus does not continue up an hour after the sun, & therefore must be always in a strong twilight.  It sets at present N. of the west;  but will be in the S.W. but not set an hour after the sun ’til Octr. from which time it will make a good figure ’til March in the S.W., W., & a little to the N. of the W.

Monks rhubarb seven feet high;  makes a noble appearance in bloom.

A fly-catcher has built a nest in the great apricot-tree, in which there is one egg.

Dr Chandler by letter dated Rolle en Suisse April 4th 1789.  “The Swallows disappeared here about the end of September, 178, the weather being cold: but Oct 17th I saw a pair as we passed among the mountains towards Fort le Cluse on the road to Lyons; & my servant saw a pair on the 19th when we had got thro’ the mountains into Bresse.  Passing an islet of the Rhone Octr 23 near Pont St Esprit, again I saw a swallow, which dipped to drink.  As we approached nearer Marseilles, we saw wasps, dragon-flies, butter-flies, & other summer-insects.  I was ashore Novr 10 at Porto Longona, in the isle of Sr Elbe, off the coast of Italy, towards the evening.  Philip declared that a swallow had passed over his head, of which I doubted; but presently after saw three crossing the Port towards us.  They flew almost straight, very swiftly; & I should have supposed were going to Italy, if the distance had been less, or the Sun not so near setting.  Wasps were in full vigour, & numerous there.  I was assured by a friend at Rome, March 16, 1788, that he had seen swallows at Naples six weeks before.  Mr Morris informed me that martins had been busy under the eaves of the house, where he lodged, about a week.  I saw there, two days after, four nests which they had begun to repair, & on the 26th a couple of the birds: but Mr. M. declared that he had heard them twitter at least as early as the first of March.  The first swift I observed was over the river Liris on my return from Naples April 27th: Nightingales sung there.  On the 20th of last March Philip saw two martins about the lake of Geneva; & was assured by a man that he had seen them on the 18th.  On the 25th he saw several swallows; & supposes the martins to have perished with the cold, as they have not been seen since, & the weather has been bad.  They seem to have disappeared again, as I have not yet seen one.   I remarked bees, & a brimstone-butterfly, march 5th; & about the same time magpies building in the trees opposite to my windows.  I was told that a single martin commonly arrives first, as it were to explore; & again withdraws, as it were to fetch a colony.  Mr Morris, who has lived several years at Rome, related, that the boys there angle for the Swallows with a line at the end of a reed, & instead of a hook, a noose baited with a feather, & hung out at the corners of the streets.  Many are taken by this method, & carried home to be roasted & eaten; or to supply the markets, where they are commonly sold in season.  At Chamberry in Savoy I observed in the evening a joyous croud, & a great bustle.  My curiosity led me to see what was the matter.  A net was spread from one house to an other a cross a street.  These brutes tied the birds they intercepted (chiefly swifts) in pairs by two of their legs, & dismissed them from the windows to flutter down, & become the sport of the mob below.  I turned away with horror, & disgust.  The first quail that I have heard this year 1787 was near Rolle, on May 20th in the evening.”