The Natural History of Selborne

Began to build the walls of my parlor, which is 23 feet & half by 18 feet; & 12 feet high & 3 inch.

The foliage of the nectarines is much blotched & shrivelled, so that the trees look poorly.

Clouds flye different ways. Distant thunder.

Field crickets begin their shrilling summer sound.  My horses began to be turned-out a nights.

The grass-hopper lark whispers in the night.

Swallows begin to collect dirt from the road, & to carry it into chimneys for the business of nidification.

Sun, fine day, showers.  Most vivid rainbow.

The scenes round the village are beautifully diversifyed by the bloom of the pear-trees, plums, & cherries.  A great flood on the Thames in consequence of the rain on friday night.

The bark of oak now runs; & I am felling some trees.  Wwen trees are sawn-off, & thrown, a rushing sound is heard from the but, often attended with a little frothing & bubbling-out of the sap.  This rushing or hissing is occasioned by the motion of the air escaping thro’ the vessels of the wood.

Notwithstanding the dry winter & spring, the pond on the common is brim full.