The Natural History of Selborne

Took the black-bird’s nest the fourth time: it contained squab young.

Made rasp, & curran jam, & jelly.

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.

My meadow is begun to be mowed.

Men cut their meadows.  Mr Churton came.

Farmer Corps brought me two eggs of a fern-owl, which he found under a bush in shrub-wood. The dam was sitting on the nest; & the eggs, by their weight, seemed to be just near hatching. These eggs were darker, & more mottled than what I have procured before.

The double roses rot in the bud without blowing out: an instance this of the coldness, & wetness of the summer.  Potatoes blossom.

Whortle-berries offered at the door.  Cherries have little flavour.

Guns fire at Portsmouth.

The Provost & Lady left us.  Thunder in the night, & most part of the day to the S. & S.E.  Yellow evening.