The Natural History of Selborne

Papilio Atalanta.  This is an autumnal fly, & therefore must appear at this season by accident.  Fine rains about the kingdom; but little to the advantage of our district.  At Lyndon in Rutland, the first swallow was seen April 14: first swift April 29: first H. martin May 6.

Fern-owls chatter in the highwood & hanger.

The long rows of tulips make a gallant shew.

House-snails abound now: scarce any have appeared before on account of the long drought.

One swift at Bramshot; one at Selborne.  At Blackburn in Lancashire swallows first seen April 15; swifts April 28; house-martins May 4th.  Cuckow sings April 28; laughing wren sings Apr. 17.  Several ponds are dry.

Sowed two boxes of polyanth-seed from London.  Sowed a large bed of carrots, which could not be sowed before on account of the long dry season.  Ground still dry & harsh.  Some oaks & ashes half in leaf.  Trees more than a fortnight forwards than they have been for some years past.

Gardens much injured by the heat.  White throat appears, & whistles, using odd gesticulations in the air when it mounts above the hedges.

Sun, sultry, fierce heat!  Midsummer evening.  The sun scorched øtil within an hour of setting.  Swfit appears at Manchester & Fyfield.  Apus, one single swift.  They usually arrive in pairs.  Parhelia, or odd halo round the sun.  Described since in Gent. mag.

Early tulips blow.  A pair of house-martins appear, & frequent the nest at the end of the house; a single one also wants to go in.  THese must be of the family bred there last year.  The nest was built last summer. The martins throw the rubbish out of their nest.  Bank-martins abound on short-heath: they come full as soon as the house-swallow.  Two swans inhabit Oakhanger-ponds: they came of themselves in the winter with three more.  Pulled won many old House-martin’s nests; they were full of rubbish, & the exuviae of the Hippobosca hirundinis in the pupa state.  These insects obtain so much sometimes in yir nests, as to render the place insupportable to the young, & to oblige them to throw themselves to the ground.  The case is the same sometimes with young swifts.

Ivy-berries fall off dead-ripe.