The Natural History of Selborne

Ten nests of wasps have been destroy’d just at hand: they abound & are ploughed up every day.

Hops throw out good side shoots & blow.  Some few hills have perfect hops.  A sea-lark shot at Newton-pond

Birds are much influenced in their choice of food by colour: for tho’ white currans are a much sweeter fruit than red; yet they seldom touch the former ’til they have devoured every bunch of the latter.  The male & female ants of the little yellow & little black sorts, leaving their nests, fill the air.  The females seem big with eggs.  They also run about on the turf, & seem in great agitation.  The females wander away, & form new colonies when pregnant.

The swifts are so fledge before they quit the nest that they are not to be distinguished from their dams on the wing; yet from the encrease of their numbers, & from their unusual manner of clinging to walls & towers one may perceive that several are now out.  And no wonder that they should begin to bestir themselves, since they will probably withdraw in a fortnight.

Opened the crop of a swift, & found it filled with the wing-cases & legs &c. of small coleoptera.  Hence it is plain the coleoptera soar high in the air.

Five wasps nests destroyed this evening: two before.

Some martins are buliding against Mr Yaldens’ windows.  Young martins– perchers on the battlements of the tower, where the old ones feed them.

* The young martin becomes a flyer in about sixteen days from the egg: most little birds come into their maturity, or full growth, in about a fortnight: for were they to lie a long time in the nest in a helpless state, few would escape; some mischief or other would destroy the whole breed.  The more forward pulli are out some days before the underlings of the same brood.

Some of the forwardest birds of some broods of martins are out, the more backward remain in the nest.

Hay much damaged: many meadows not cut. This dripping season, which hurts individuals in their hay, does marvelous service to the public, in the spring-corn, after-grass, turneps, fallows, &c. Oats are much recovered, & brought-on. Wheat begins to change colour; is not lodged.

* When a person approaches the haunt of fern-owls (caprimulgi) in an evening, they continue flying round the head of the obtruder; & striking their wings together above their backs, in the manner that the pigeons called smiters are known to do, make a smart snap: perhaps at that time they are jealous for their young; & their noise & gesture are intended by way of menace.

Five young kestrils, or windhovers almost fledge are taken in an old magpie nest.