The Natural History of Selborne

Swifts abound: near 15 pairs: they seem to come from other villages.  H: martins now abound, & build briskly.

Hot sun, & brisk gale, sweet even.  Dusty beyond comparison.  Watered away five hogsheads of water.  Stoparola has five eggs.  Rooks live hard:  there are no chafers.  Barley & oats do not come up;  the fields look naked.  Some pairs of swifts always build in this village under the low thatched roofs of some of the meanest cottages:  & as there fails to be nests in those particular houses, it looks as if some of the same family still returned to the same place.

Martin begins to build at the end of the brewhouse.

House-martins do not build as usual:  perhaps are troubled to find wet dirt.  Bees swarm.  Severe heat in the lanes in the middle of the day.

Young broods of moor-hens appear.  Lettuces that stood the winter are very fine.  Cut my St. foin: it is in full bloom, & a good crop:  this is the seventh crop…. swifts have eggs, but do not sit. Do they lay more than two?

Chafers are pretty well gone; they did not deface the hedges this year.  When swifts mute flying, they raise their wings over their backs.

The swallows pursue the magpies & buffet them.  Wall-fruit swells.

Martins abound:  they came late, but appear to be more in number than usual.  Some pairs of martins repair, & inhabit nests of several years standing.

The shell of the martin’s nest begun May 16 is finished.

The crows, rooks, & daws in great numbers continue to devour the chafers on the hanger. Was it not for those birds chafers would destroy everything. Rooks, now their young are flown, do not roost on their nest-trees, but retire in the evening towards Hartley-woods. Martins roost in the their new nests as soon as ever they are large enough to contain them.