The Natural History of Selborne

The turfing the walks advances apace.

Two grey crows flew over my garden to the hanger: a sight I never saw before.

Helleborus foetidus buds for bloom.

Green plovers now appear in small companies on the uplands.  They flie high and make a whistling.  They do not breed in these parts.

The turfing of the level ground goes on briskly.  No late martins have appeared this Novr: a flight sometimes is seen about the first week in this month.

All our levelling-work is under water.  The baromr has been unusually low for many days past; & yet with little wind: but the rains have been prodigious.  Most of the rain has fallen by night.

Rains have lasted ten weeks.  Saw a flock of seven or 8 stone-curlews.  These birds generally retire before this time.

Ground to be levelled is under water.  Wood-cocks pretty common.  The country all in a flood.

Snipes leave the moors & marshes which are flooded, & get up into the uplands.

Cornix cinerea.  Flying over Faringdon heath.  The first grey crow that I ever saw in the district of Selborne.  They are common on the downs about Andover: about Winton, & Bagshot.  Most of the earth to be removed in levelling the garden is taken away in some places to the depth of 18 inches.  The continued rains much interrupt the work, & make it a nasty jobb.  The best mould is laid on the quarters of the garden, the clayey soil is wheeled into the meadow.