The Natural History of Selborne

Small scuds of rain.  No rain to measure since July 14.  On this day a bloody & obstinate engagement happened between Admiral Hyde Parker, & a Dutch fleet off the Dogger-bank.

Now the ants, male, female, & workers, come forth from under my stairs by thousands.

The honey-bees suck the goose-berries, where the birds have broke the skin.

The ants, male, female, & workers, come forth from under my stairs by thousands.

Timothy comes-out but a little, while the weather is so hot: he skulks among the carrots, & cabbages.  Red-breasts eat the berries of the honey-suckle.

Gleaners bring home bundles of corn.  The black-birds, & thrushes come from the woods in troops to plunder my garden.  We shot 30 blackbirds, & thrushes.  The white-throats are bold thieves; nor are the red-breasts at all honest with respect to currans.  Birds are guided by colour, & do not touch any white fruits ’til they have cleared all the red; they eat the red grapes, rasps, currans, & goose-berries first.

The blackbirds & thrushes, that have devoured all the wild cherries in the meadow, now begin to plunder the garden.

The crop on my largest Apricot-tree is still prodigious, tho’ in May I pulled off 30, or 40 dozen.

Of those China hollyhocks that stood the winter the tall ones are plain & single: the stunted ones are double & variegated.

All the first meadow-hay about us was spoiled: all the latter was ricked in delicate order. Late in the evening the swifts course round with their young high in the air. They are some times so numerous that one might suspect they are joined by parties from other villages. The fly-catchers have quite forsaken my house & garden: they never breed twice.