The Natural History of Selborne

Hares eat all the pinks.

Rear Adm. Sr Samuel Hood sailed with 8 ships of the line.

Timothy lies very snug but does not get any deeper.

Multitudes of Starlings appear at Newton, & run feeding about in the grass-fields.  No number is known to breed in these parts.  This is therefore an emigration from some other district.

Some animal eats off the pinks.

The ponds fill very fast.

Crickets in the chimney cry but faintly & do not appear much.  The cats kill all they can see.  *The severity of the weather quickened Timothy’s retreat: he used to stay above ground ’til about the 20th.  At Ringmer he used to lay himself up in a wet swampy border: indeed he had no choice.

Somewhat eats the pinks in the garden.

Wheat-stubbles plow-up in fine order; green wheat comes up well.  Tortoise goes under ground: over him is thrown a coat of moss.  The border being very light & mellow, the tortoise has thrown the mould entirely over his shell, leaving only a small breatheing hole near his head.  Timothy lies in the border under the fruit-wall, in an aspect where he will enjoy the warmth of the sun, & where no wet can annoy him: a hen-coop over his back protects him from dogs, &c.

Wells, streams, & ponds are very low.