The Natural History of Selborne

Turnep greens run very fast: forward turneps rot.

Vast flocks of hen-chaffinches.  Honey-bees come forth, & gather on the Crocuss.

Sad accounts from various parts of devastations by storms & inundations. A spoon-bill platalea leucorodia Linn: was shot near Yarmouth in Norfolk: it is pretty common in Holland, but very rare indeed in this island.  There were several in a flock.  They build Willughby says, like Herons in tall trees.  Their feet are semipalmated.  Those birds in Norfolk must have crossed the German ocean.

Mezereon in fine bloom.  Peter Wells’s well runs over.  Spiders, woodlice, lepismae in cupboards, & among sugar, some empedes, gnats, flies of several species, some phalenae in hedges, earth-worms, &c., are stirring at all times when winters are mild; & are of great service to those soft-billed birds that never leave us.

Many species of Insects are stirring thro’ every month in mild winters.

Many species of muscae come-out. Earth-worms lie out at their holes after ’tis dark.

Helleborus viridis emerges out of the ground, budding for bloom.  Laurustine blooms.

Much damage at Portsmouth by unusual tides, & at the isle of Wight.  * A rook should be shot weekly the year thro’, & it’s crop examined: hence perhaps might be discovered whether in the whole they do more harm or good from the contents at various periods.  Tho’ this experiment might show that the birds often injure corn, & turneps; ye the continual consumption of grubs, & noxious insects would rather preponderate in their favour.

Vast rain, stormy.  Much damage was done by sea & land; & on the river at London.

Dark & sharp, sun, cutting wind, hard frost. Icicles.  Note: Chaucer, speaking of Goassamer as a strange phenomenon, says, “As sore some wonder at the cause of thunder;/ on ebb, & flode, on gosomer, & mist;/And on all thing; ’till that cause is wist.”