Swallows not seen: they withdraw in bad weather, & perhaps sleep most of their time away like dogs & cats, who have a power of accululating rest, when the season does not permit them to be active.
A man brought me a land-rail or daker-hen, a bird so rare in this district, that we seldom see more than one or two in a season, & those only in autumn. This is deemed a bird of passage by all the writers; yet from it’s formation seems to be poorly qualifyed for migration; for its wings are short, & placed so forward, & out of the center of gravity, that it flies in a very heavy & embarrassed manner, with it’s legs hanging down; & can hardly be sprung a second time, as it runs very fast, & seems to depend more on the swiftness of it’s feet than on it’s flying. When we came to draw it, we found the entrails so soft & tender, that inappearance they might have been dressed like the ropes of an woodcock. The craw or crop was small & lank, containing a mucus; the gizzard thick & strong, & filled with many shell-snails, some whole, & many ground to pieces thro’ the attrition which is occasioned by the muscular force & motion of that intestine. We saw no gravels among the food: perhaps the shell-snails might perform the functions of gravels or pebbles, & might grind one another. Land-rails used to abound formerly, I remember, in the low, wet bean-fields of Xtian Malford in North Wilts; & in the meadows near Paradise-Gardens at Oxford, where I have often heard them cry Crex, Crex. The bird mentioned above weighed seven ounces & an half, was fat & tender, & in flavour like thesh of a woodcock. The liver was very large & delicate.
Multitudes of Hirundines. Sweet Mich. weather.
Men bag their hops; & house seed-clover. A fern-owl plays round the Plestor. As we were walking this day, Sept. 22nd: being the King’s coronation, on Nore-hill at one o’ the clock in the afternoon, we heard great guns on each side of us, viz. from the S. & from the N.E., which undoubtedly were the cannons of Portsmouth & Windsor: the former of which is at least 26 miles distant, & the latter 30. If the guns heard from the N.E. were not from Windsor, they must be those of the Tower of London.
We find no mushrooms on the down, nor on Nore hill. Women continue to glean, but the corn is grown in the ears. Will Trimming has wheat still abroad. Gathered-in the white pippins, a large crop.
Myriads of Insects sporting in the sunbeams.
No mushrooms in the pastures below Buarrant-hangers. Here & there a wasp. The furze-seed which Bro. Tho. sowed last may on the naked part of the hanger comes up well. Some raspberry-trees in the bushes on the common. Trees keep their verdure well.
Began to light fires in the parlors. Some young martins in a nest at the end of the brew-house. Small uncrested wrens, chif-chaffs, are seen in the garden.
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